In Laos you can travel second class, first class… and monk class. Priority boarding goes to the country’s Buddhist brothers, indispensable in their saffron-colored robes. In flip-flops and mobile phones in their hands, they lead the way when a Tannoy calls passengers to board the train.
I was at Vientiane train station, about to start a journey on a high-speed train that was launched during the pandemic and now – with the end of Covid restrictions – open to tourists. It departs from the capital, which lies along a damp bend of the Mekong River, and heads north through rugged limestone mountains 400 kilometers to the Chinese border. On the way, it stops at Vang Vieng, a town that sits on the banks of the Envelope River; Muang Xai, gateway to ethnic minority jungle retreats and villages; and the Unesco-protected temple city of Luang Prabang.
Built with the help of Chinese investment, the new train stations in Laos are gleaming affairs with sloping roofs. The train itself – Lane Xang – is named after a bygone kingdom and means “Land of a Million Elephants”. Asian jumbos charged into battle and were symbols of kingship when warrior Fa Ngum came to the throne in 1353, but that royal empire splintered four centuries later and the Laos monarchy finally came to an unsavory end. When the communists came to power in 1975, they exiled the last king of Laos to a re-education camp, where he perished.
Now the land of seven million souls is the Laos People’s Democratic Republic. Boun, my guide, told me that the PDR in Laos also means “don’t hurry,” an expression of Laos’ tendency to take things at a measured pace.
The new train thus breaks the mold, as it travels at 100 mph. Carriages are air-conditioned modern affairs, each patrolled by orderlies and ticket sales staff. Flawless (both crouching and sitting) bookends any wagon. From my window seat, I caught glimpses of terraced paddy fields, chubby buffaloes, and people kicking up dust on motorcycle rides home.
In Vang Vieng, wrote travel writer Norman Lewis in 1951, “rock cliffs rise 6,000 feet high from a flat plain. We were, as it were, overshadowed by a huge scribble in the air.” To take it all in I stayed at the Riverside Boutique resort. From gardens of coconut and frangipani, cocktail in hand, I watched the sun sink behind the sugarloaf peaks.
Muang Xai was my next stop along the track. Up in the mountains with Mr. Don, my trekking guide, we passed rice paddies and hedges full of poinsettias. The Hmong and Khmu minority live here. The sound of banging greeted us as we entered the village of Phavie. Khmu men and women squat outside their wooden houses on stilts and smash coal-sized black chunks against stone pillars. I was invited to join. It took nine blows for my nugget to release its treasure: maku nuts. They taste peanut-like, but with more flavor.
The train south to Luang Prabang takes 45 minutes. I strolled the streets with a new guide named Siphack, past painted Buddhist temples with tiered roofs mimeographed in gold. It is simply one of the most beautiful places in the world.
Laos is rooted in the traditions of Buddhism and engages in magical thinking. Some 15 nagas, or water spirits, are said to live in glass palaces at the bottom of the Mekong as guardians of Luang Prabang. But Laos also has a new naga. The slender-nosed train is a “silver snake”; the color scheme on the chair depicts it as such. Will it bring happiness to Laos?
“The train will bring more jobs and money,” Siphack said. “The development is coming to Laos and people are happy about that.”
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InsideAsia (0117 244 3380; insideasiatours.com) has a 10-night train journey to Laos from £2,051 pp (excluding international flights), including all overnight accommodation with daily breakfast, some other meals, train tickets and transfers from Vientiane to Luang Prabang via Vang Vieng and Muang Xai, and guiding