Nomadic Notes Travel Newsletter

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Northern Laos update
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Northern Laos update

I went to Boten so you don't have to.

James Clark
May 27
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Northern Laos update
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Greetings from Muang Xai! This provincial capital is one of the express stations on the Laos-China Railway, which I have made a point to visit them all. To complete the set of stations, today I went to Boten on the Laos-China border.

Border towns in Southeast Asia are not places you would voluntarily visit at the best of times, and Boten is no exception. There are hundreds of trucks stuck at the border waiting to cross into China, and the new city that is being built requires a covid test to enter. I was going to do a report for Future Southeast Asia, but this is not the place to find out you are asymptomatic with Covid and subsequently get quarantined for a week.

To top it off, there were no shops between Boten station and the border town, and there was a long wait between trains. I knew the Boten segment of this trip was going to be a hard day, and it has indeed been such a day. This is a long-winded way of saying I’m running late with this week’s newsletter.

I am writing a report about this amazing railway line, and I went to Boten so you don't have to.

I'm about 5 months behind on Nomadic Notes blog posts at the moment, but I will bump the Laos-China Railway Guide up the publishing queue. Here is what the train looks like arriving at Luang Prabang.

Twitter avatar for @nomadicnotesJames Clark @nomadicnotes
Laos-China Railway arriving at Luang Prabang Station, heading towards Boten.

May 25th 2022

2 Retweets5 Likes

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@nomadicnotes at Instagram

Follow me at @nomadicnotes for real-time updates.

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A post shared by James Clark ✈️ (@nomadicnotes)

The Nomadic Notes Travel Newsletter is a weekly newsletter of the best travel reads and interesting travel news from around the web, and random ramblings by the editor.

- James Clark

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Greg Rodgers
May 27Liked by James Clark

So no Top 10 Things to Do in Boten article coming up? jk :)

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