Laos

The Burmese language fell away from me as the plane gained altitude. I had revelled in it while visiting Burma but in one hour I was going to be back in Thailand and would once again need to grapple with the intricacies of the Thai language. I pulled out the Thai version of the language sheets and there it once again, the basics of a language at my fingertips. I'd spoken Thai for five or six days when I'd first arrived in South East Asia nearly a month earlier. I thought I'd forgotten almost everything. I hadn't. The language sheet had it all, like a safe holding the family heirlooms. For the next few of days I navigated around Bangkok, basking in the local culture and spinning out Thai phrases as and when I needed them. When the time was ripe, I caught a train and a bus north to Chang Rai - destination Laos.

The border between the two countries was about an hour's bus ride from Chang Rai. Thailand sat stern and modernized on one side of the Mekong River, on the other was slow and unconcerned Laos. A Thai border guard gave each of us a stamp in his or her passport then a small putt-putting launch took us on to the river. It was past the wet season, the Mekong was low and lazy. Smooth, canine rocks jutted above the surface of the river attesting to its perennial ferrocity. The launch paid them no heed. As we neared the opposite bank the somnambulistic grip of Laos began to take effect. Like a clock being dunked in treacle, time slowed down and matters of imminent importance took a back seat - Laos is the Jamaica of Asia.

It took a while to get through customs; there was no one there when we arrived. The door was shut and the shades were drawn. No problem, man. After a while, a uniformed agent sauntered up, then a mini-bank opened and everyone was duly stamped into the country and currency exchanged. No hustle, no bustle. As far as I remember, the man in the mini-bank even gave me slightly too much change; it was easier than bothering with all the fiddley dogends of the transaction.

I heard a story that managed to sum up the Lao character : An aid organization came to Laos with a new type of rice that would double the farmer's yield. On hearing this a Lao farmer was overjoyed, exclaiming, "Now I'll only have to work half as much."

To be continued....