Phongsali [LAOS]

Phongsali [LAOS]

Head into the far north to this untouristy town, from where you can explore the beautiful surrounding countryside.
Despite being a large town, it lacks any real tourist infrastructure, and wandering around you will most likely find yourself the object of curious (but not bad-natured) stares. Though at first you may wonder where you’ve ended up, soon enough the lack of other tourists, cool mountain air and stunning surrounding countryside will work their charm on you. With the trekking scene still fairly low-key here, the town is a great place to do an overnight trip to the province’s fascinating hill-tribe villages. A wide slice of terrain wedged between China’s Yunnan and Vietnam’s Lai Chau provinces, Phongsali province would surely be a part of China today were it not for the covetous nineteenth-century French. During the Second Indochina War, Phongsali came under heavy Chinese influence, a fact evident in the fortress-like former Chinese consulate, now the Phou Fa Hotel. It was during this time also that much of the province was stripped of its hardwood forests, compensation for China’s support for the Pathet Lao. The town’s inhabitants are made up of the Theravada Buddhist, Tibeto-Burman-speaking Phu Noi people and the Chinese Haw, descendants of Yunnanese traders who annually drove caravans of packponies south into old Siam.