Heading for Phongsaly
By Tessa Bunney on 19 October 2012As I had to postpone my planned trip to Phongsaly Province until later this year, I decided this weekend to take a short 4 day trip there just so that I don’t miss seeing the October landscape and harvest completely. Described as one of Lao’s remotest provinces, Phongsaly is dominated by rugged, mountainous terrain and an abundance of thick forests and fast-flowing rivers. The population is made up of officially 28 different ethnic groups and Phongsaly town is the highest city in Laos at 1400 m above sea level. It would probably take 3 days each way to drive there from Vientiane so I decided to fly there directly with Lao Air on this very small 18 seater plane:
Now, I was OK with that until the communications officer of a well known UN agency told me they weren’t allowed to fly to Phongsaly this way but had to take the main airline to the nearest large town with an airport and drive for 8 hours on a mountain road.
Wish me luck!