Neither Here Nor There

Pak Beng exists for no other reason than to provide those travelling on the Mekong with a reasonably pleasant night, as they transit from Chiang Khong to Luang Prabang.

The banks are unnatractive and lined with twenty or so long boats, sandwiched together by the strong current of the Mekong River. The only road in the village is lined with houses and restraunts, one displaying a couple of bombs from the war outside the entrance. So there's not a lot to do here other than eat and sleep. If youre a morning person, a stroll through the very early morning market is light entertainment, but it means you still have a lot of time to kill, so why not just sleep?

One restaurant displays a couple of bombs from the war outside its entrance.

Later, when I was in Vientiane, I met a man from Belgium who is now living in Laos. He talked about Pak Beng and how there are so many travellers who get mugged there. Since there is no other towns to spend the night at river travellers are forced to stop the night. The kids never have a shortage of unassuming travellers to nick things off.