Life in the fast lane

Now that a new high-speed train is opening up corners of Laos once served only by buses, how will life change in the laid-back nation where slow travel has always been the norm?

- Claire Boobbyer

The sleek-nosed train was wrapped in the red, white and blue of the Lao national flag and sparkled in the sunlight on a spotless platform. A man dressed in natty turquoise barked orders through a megaphone to keep passengers away from the carriages until the doors glided open. Then a woman wearing a beautiful blue-embroidered sinh (a traditional wraparound skirt) and a frangipani flower in her hair greeted me at the door. Another seemed to be taking care of the large luggage inside. So far, so unlike any rail service I'd ever encountered in the West.

The new Lane Xang (meaning 'Land of a Million Elephants') train shuttles between Vientiane, capital of Laos, and the China border, tunnelling through epic limestone peaks and over rivers for 422km at a top speed of 160kph. As far as rail travel in Laos goes, it's like looking into the future.

As I stepped aboard, I thought of the explorer Henri Mouhot, who spent 50 days crossing 800km of Laos on the back of an elephant in 1861, and died shortly afterwards. This train would carry me to my first stop at Vang Vieng (130km away) in 66 minutes! Mouhot's wildest dreams could not have imagined such technological strides here, and up until very recently, neither could I.

When I first visited Laos in 2005, just one set of traffic lights ruled Vientiane. I spent my days visiting far-flung corners of this landlocked nation on uncomfortable, mud-spattered buses. This train, which is part of a larger 1,000km-long China-Laos network that begins over the border in Kunming, not only heralds a new way of seeing Laos but is a true feat of engineering - the mountains in the north are not easily tunnelled. For me, I was curious as to how it would change the way travellers experience this laid-back country.