Phim Hay 360s

Laos is aiming to develop roads linking neighbouring countries to boost trade, investment and tourism, Prime Minister Bouasone Pouphavanh said at the Nationwide Meeting of Public Works and Transport in Vientiane on Wednesday.

“The roads can bring benefits to our country in trade, investment, and tourism, especially in attracting more investors to Laos,” he said.

It will also help support the government's strategic plan for poverty reduction, aimed at raising Laos from the UN's least-developed country list by 2020.

Land, water and air transport have to improve to facilitate access to services for domestic and foreign traders in the region, Mr Bouasone said.

A road in Saravan province is one of many being constructed to link Laos with Vietnam.

The government will also spend more than 900 billion kip upgrading and paving the 147km Road No. 15 that runs from Saravan province to the Vietnamese border.

About 50 percent of the work has now been done and 30km of the road has been asphalted, project head Mr Bouachanh Ouansavanh said.

It is due for completion in 2012.

Last year, Laos saw the opening of its first train station in Vientiane, with the railway linking Vientiane to Nong Khai province in Thailand across the Lao-Thai Mekong Friendship Bridge.

Road R3 in Luang Namtha province in the north of Laos, which was completed in 2008, also links the province to Yunnan province in China.

According to the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, it provides a valuable communication and service route passing through northern Laos, and enables the easy transport of goods between Laos, China, and Thailand.

In addition, Savannakhet province in the south of Laos and Mukdahan in neighbouring Thailand are linked by a bridge across the Mekong.

Savannakhet is located along the East-West Economic Corridor, linking Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam on Road No 9. It also lies along the north-south Road No 13, which runs through Laos leading north to China and south into Cambodia.

The third Lao-Thai Mekong Friendship Bridge, linking Khammuan province in central Laos to Nakhon Phanom province in Thailand, will be completed by November 2011.


By Khonesavanh Latsaphao
Vientianetimes

The Gibbon Experience is an innovative forest conservation project in northwestern Laos, where visitors spend three days living in treehouses built 40 metres above the ground, reachable only by a network of ziplines and a few short hikes.

A few months ago, I decided to give it a try. It takes place in the Bokeo Nature Reserve, a 123,000-hectare area in the province of Bokeo, which shares a border with Myanmar and Thailand.



At present, Lao National Parks have no forest guards for day-to-day protection. Only the forest guards in the Bokeo Nature Reserve receive a salary; fully funded by The Gibbon Experience. They presently monitor one third of the 123,000-hectare reserve.

There were two trip options when I went: Classic Experience and Waterfall Experience. The Waterfall option takes you further into the forest and has more required trekking, two-three hours/day. I tried to book the Waterfall trip and even planned my travel dates around it since the trips leave on alternating dates, but due to a miscommunication with the office I ended up on the Classic. It turned out that all the Waterfall trips were fully booked for weeks by the time I tried to reserve a spot so there’s no way I could have done it anyway.

But it didn’t really matter which trip I was on, because with the Classic Experience I had lots of free time to do all the extra trekking I wanted, including a visit to Treehouse #5 where the Waterfall people stayed.

Small groups of people travel into the forest together on alternating days; in our group there were two families with a total of five kids aged four-10 or so, an American/Thai couple, two English girls and me. The families were in Treehouse #1, the couple in #2, and I was stuck in #3 with the cute English girls. Treehouse #3 was the best of the three in my opinion, though the others were better for playing on ziplines.

After watching a video on how to use the ziplines, we were shuttled three hours from the town of Huay Xai on the Thai border to Ban Toup, a small village on the border of the nature reserve. We were joined there by a small monkey and a black bear cub who were both quite cute, and constantly at each other’s throats. They seemed fairly evenly matched now but I wouldn’t give the monkey very good odds once the bear has grown a bit more.

From there we walked for about an hour to a building near Treehouse #1 where our meals were prepared, where we were each given a harness to use on the ziplines connecting the treehouses; these are like normal rock climbing harnesses except for an extra little roller/brake contraption and redundant safety rope and carabiner attached to them.

We walked to the first zipline leading to Treehouse #1. The kids were taken across by guides on the first few zips but the older ones were allowed to go on their own after a while.

We spent the next few days living in treehouses, hiking through the forest and playing around on the ziplines. There are a total of seven ziplines leading to Treehouse #3; I think the longest one is about one km long.

The treehouses were pretty impressive: each has running water from a nearby spring, there’s a shower and toilet, sinks in the kitchen and bathroom, and all the water is completely safe to drink. The toilet is just a normal squat toilet with nothing underneath it but a 40m drop to the forest floor. I heard there are pigs at Treehouse #1 that help clean up the mess; on Day 2 when we were eating pork sausages for dinner I remarked on this beautiful circle of life.

The beds were quite comfortable, with duvets and thick mosquito nets. The shower looked pretty fun because you could see right down into the forest through a bamboo grate, but I never used it because it and the toilet were constantly swarming with hornets.

The views from the treehouses were fantastic, especially at dawn and sunset.

The guides were amazingly well-tuned to the weather: they told us to put our harnesses on because they could hear strong winds coming, when all I could hear were crickets and birds. Sure enough a while later it got quite windy, and they correctly predicted other weather events as well.

However, although the guides were good weather forecaster, they weren’t exactly the way their brochures portrayed them as. The marketing info says the trips include “Local guides eager to show you the forest and its inhabitants”, but I would replace “eager” with “reluctantly willing”. I asked a couple times about going for a walk to see animals or going for a guided walk the next morning, but only got confusion and “no animals” as a response.

I think the more experienced guides were assigned to the tree house with the kids, so the ones we had were fairly new (a couple of them said they had had this job for three months), and the main issue was the language barrier between us. I expect the more experienced guides would have done much more in terms of teaching us about the forest, animals, treehouses and the conservation programme.



Later, we made our way out of the reserve, stopping to watch the monkey and bear scrap for a while. It was amazingly fun to watch; they’re both so cute and have such different fighting styles: the monkey is really quick and agile, and the bear is slow and clumsy but more powerful.

All in all it was a fantastic experience that I would recommend to anyone, in spite of disappointment with the guides. I expect the guides would be better on the average than the ones we had, and I think they would have done the guided walks if I had pushed them a bit more.

Source: http://news.brunei.fm/2010/03/21/hanging-around-in-laos-forest/

A month before Lao New Year (Pi Mai) local authorities and residents of the World Heritage town of Luang Prabang are looking forward to celebrating a special year that saw their hometown reclaim a coveted travel award.

Locals are looking forward to bringing in the new year and welcoming the numerous tourists who will travel to the town from all corners of the globe to explore its ancient charms and find out for themselves why the town was voted as the world's top destination by readers of the UK's Wanderlust Travel Magazine last month.

Luang Prabang was granted World Heritage status by UNESCO in 1995. The town is the former capital of the ancient kingdom of Lane Xang, or the land of a million elephants.

Luang Prabang is a cultural centre in the region, with its numerous temples a testimony to a wealth of culture and civilisation.

Luang Prabang won the magazine's ‘top destination' title from 2006 to 2008 before falling to seventh in 2009 because the city could not maintain its beauty, attractiveness and cleanliness.

This year Luang Prabang received first place with a score of 94.74 percent, followed by Siena, Italy, with 94.67 percent and Berlin, Germany, with 94.15 percent.

“We were voted back as number one this year because everyone involved actively worked together to address the issues raised by UNESCO relating to the town's heritage areas and conservation,” said Head of the Luang Prabang provincial Tourism Department, Mr Khamphoui Phommavong.

Residents renovating or enlarging houses in the old part of the town without consulting authorities or gaining the appropriate approval is causing problems and endangering the town's world heritage status.

This, coupled with an increasing number of vehicles on the roads, are the main issues that local authorities must resolve to ensure the town retains both its unique charm and characteristics and its world heritage classification.

“We are proud of the award, which will encourage us to work harder towards unifying development and preservation efforts. But we will keep in mind that maintaining the title is very challenging,” said Mr Khamphoui.

The department will gather tourism operators, urban developers and the relevant sectors to explain future plans and what needs to be done to maintain the town's world heritage status.

The UNESCO listing is a significant factor in attracting visitors to the town and surrounding areas, where they can experience unique architectural styles, plentiful temples, and natural and historical sites and activities.

Although the town is renowned for its distinctive architecture, which blends French colonial styles with traditional Lao aspects, there are numerous other attractions for visitors to enjoy.

The Luang Prabang night market is one fascinating feature of the town, where visitors can enjoy shopping and browsing a wide variety of clothing, jewellery, fashion accessories and handicrafts produced by Laos' numerous different ethnic groups.

A trip to a market in many parts of Laos can be an unpleasant experience, with vendors hassling and pressuring you to make a purchase, but the Luang Prabang night market is a world far removed from this. The polite and pleasant vendors are more than happy for customers to browse through goods and are always pleased to try and answer any questions you may have.

Another interesting place to visit is the Luang Prabang Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre, where visitors can get a fascinating insight into the cultures, lifestyles and traditions of the nation's multitude of ethnic groups. On display are the traditional clothing of each group, along with accessories, tools and equipment used in daily life and detailed explanations of traditions and customs.

The region's longstanding culture and religion is an important factor in bringing unity to the town, and working together to preserve customs and prevent inappropriate developments is considered to be the job of all residents. The older generation is particularly eager to preserve the town for the benefit and enjoyment of future generations.

Mr Ole, a photographer born in Luang Prabang province, said for him the charm of the town stems from the daily activities of the local people who rely on the Mekong and Khan rivers for so much of their livelihoods.

He has spent many mornings and evenings down by the riverbanks snapping photos of men fishing for their family's dinner, women washing clothes, and children playing joyfully in the river shallows.

Mr Ole is pleased that most local residents are aware of the importance of keeping the rivers clean and preserving the environment.

“To showcase the region's beautiful environmental and cultural aspects to visitors, local people are willing to be involved in keeping their community clean. Cleanliness not only benefits the tourism industry but also keeps local residents healthier,” he said.

The efforts of the local people, combined with the town's unique architecture, splendid temples, spectacular natural surrounds, and fascinating cultural heritage are sure to keep the visitors flowing into Luang Prabang for many years to come.

By Phonesavanh Sangsomboun
Vientianetimes