The Best of Cambodia & Laos

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HUAY XAI LUANG PRABANG & NORTHERN LAOS
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double) is very clean and businesslike. The Keoudomphone Hotel (Saykong Rd.;
& 084/211-405. 50,000 kip fan double, 100,000 kip A/C double) is the grandest digs
in town although in dusty Huay Xai that means not very grand at all. You do have the
option of A/C and TV. It is about .5km south of town. The Aramid Guesthouse
(Saykong Rd.; & 084/211-040; 70,000 kip fan double, 140,000 kip A/C double) offers
bungalows with their own balconies near the slow-boat pier. It has clean tiled bathrooms
with hot water, and the management speaks English.
Huay Xai is very unlikely to ever make it on to anyone’s culinary map, but there are
some decent places if you like Lao food. The Riverside Huay Restaurant (off Saykong
Rd.; main courses 14,000 kip; daily 8am–10pm) has a varied menu of Lao and Thai food
that you can enjoy along with the Mekong view. The Nut Pop (Saykong Rd.; main
courses 10,000 kip; daily 11am–10pm) is sited on a pleasant leafy deck. The Lao food
here is fiery, traditional, and delicious. The Muang Neua (Saykong Rd.; main courses
14,000 kip; daily 8am–10pm) offers interpretations of Western fare as well as Lao.
ATTRACTIONS
Fort Carnot is actually best viewed from across the river in Thailand. It is now a Lao Army
barracks and is off-limits. In previous days the black hilltop walls were home to a detachment
of French Foreign Legion. Wat Manilat is interesting because part of it is constructed
in the teakwood Shan style that you will see in northern Thailand. There are
jataka paintings (representations of the previous lives of Buddha) decorating the outside
walls of the sim (ordination hall) paid for by former Lao refugees on their return from the
west. The morning market or talat sao is very busy with traders from many different
places given Huay Xai’s nature as a riverine regional crossroads. There is a traditional
herbal sauna and massage venue run by the Lao Red Cross (Saykong Rd.; & 084/211-
264; daily 4–8:30pm). A sauna costs 10,000 kip while a 3-hour massage costs 30,000 kip.
Around Huay Xai
The Gibbon Experience A good reason to linger in Huay Xai is as a base to
enjoy the Gibbon Experience (Saykong Rd.; & 084/212-021; www.gibbonx.org). They
have an office in Huay Xai just north of Immigration. The experience itself is situated
deep in the Bokeo Nature Reserve, which consists of 123,000 hectares (303,810 acres)
of mix-deciduous forest in a mountainous terrain ranging from 500 to 1,500m (1,640–
4,920 ft.) in elevation. This conservation project came into being after the discovery in
1997 that the indigenous black-cheeked gibbons were not extinct as previously
thought. The Gibbon Experience involves two innovative programs centering on a network
of canopy huts that provide a rare opportunity to see black-cheeked crested gibbons.
It is situated far into Bokeo province, a 3-hour drive and 1-hour trek into the
jungle. The project’s aim is to conserve the vast nature reserve and raise funds to protect
wildlife while also alleviating poverty among local people. The Gibbon Experience allows
visitors to experience the rainforest high up at canopy level. With a complex system of
zip-lines and treehouses visitors scan the forest, in search of a sighting of the elusive ape.
The project has a total of four treehouses grandly stocked with food and the necessities
of life. Trekkers choose how to spend their time, and there is no schedule. Food comes
when you are hungry and the guides are always around and at your service. The Waterfall
Gibbon Experience takes trekkers deeper into the reserve with 2 to 3 hours of hiking
per day along the Nam Nga River.