Holding your breath for the breathtaking view
A new glass skyway is drawing visitors to Loei’s Chiang Khan district
The gold Buddha sculpture stands handsomely on top of Phu Khok Ngio (also spelled Phu Khok Ngiew) hill in Loei’s Chiang Khan district. Before the image is a newly-built glass-floored skywalk, set up on a bank of the confluence of the Hueang and Mekong rivers.
The skyway is the latest attraction in the province. It is located about 23km west of the old town of Chiang Khan. Since it was soft-launched around the middle of this year, the site welcomes a couple of thousand visitors a day.
“The number of visitors surges to about 5,000 a day during weekends and long holidays,” said an officer at the ticket booth. Traffic congestion will soon become a familiar scene for locals in this agricultural area. Last Saturday, our vans were stuck in traffic for a couple of hundred metres before we reached the site.
Before going to the hilltop, every visitor is required to wear a mask and pass a body temperature check at a Covid-screening checkpoint. A songthaew shuttle is available as private cars are not allowed to the hilltop where space is limited. The ride is quite short because the distance is only 850m.
When arriving at the top, each visitor has to take a queue tag, about 50 tags for one group. A volunteer handed us a pair of shoe covers so we wouldn’t leave any marks on the glass surface. A queue number is called out every 10-15 minutes, allowing visitors to enter the skywalk group by group.
When I saw so many tourists on the skyway, I asked staff about the structural capacity.
“It can handle 50 people,” he replied. “Don’t you think more than 50 people are walking out there?” I asked.
“You don’t have to worry. It can handle 50 people at one point. Get a move on if you want to come in,” he said and gestured at me to pass him. From time to time, I heard him via a speaker telling people to move.
I slowly took my first steps. The first part of the structure is a steel grating surface that connects to the glass floor. Although each glass panel is 4cm thick and can handle up to 500kg per square metre, I tried not to walk in the middle. Many visitors including elders and kids slowly walked on the sides and held tightly to the handrails. Some kids even refused to move. Their parents had to hold them up.
It is for sure a bit scary for those who are afraid of heights. The skywalk is 19m tall. When we walked on the structure, it was like we were walking on the rooftop of a 30-storey building. While looking down at the murky Mekong River, a fishing boat looked tiny. If you don’t mind walking on the glass floor, you will love the pleasant view of green mountain ranges that stretch out as far as your eyes can see along both sides of the Mekong.
From the skywalk, we headed to the new weekend walking street in Ban Na Pa Nad in tambon Khao Kaeo, a 45-minute drive from Phu Khok Ngio.
Opened about a month ago, the walking street is a mini version of Chiang Khan weekend walking street.
Ban Na Pa Nad is home to the Tai Dam ethnic group. Their ancestors migrated from Muang Thaeng (which is the present Dien Bien Phu in the northwestern part of Vietnam) in Sip Song Chu Tai during the 1880s when their town was attacked by Chinese Haw rebels from Yunnan, according to Thavorn Paisoon, president of Tai Dam Cultural Centre.
They settled in Ban Na Pa Nad around 1907. The villagers still believe in spirits although the majority of them are Buddhist and some are Christian. They have a compound of village shrines for their four guardians whom they believe to protect them from harm. The first guardian is Chao Tai Dam, or their ancestor spirit. The second is Chao Anouvong who gave them a safe passage to Siam. The third is Chao Phu Kaeo, the spirit of Kaeo mountain which gives them a freshwater supply. The last guardian is Chao Phu Huat, or the spirit of Huat hill, who makes the land fertile.
Most of the villagers are farmers. They have opened the village to welcome tourists as an extra source of income for almost a decade. With the help of the Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration, they highlight their culture as a tourism magnet. Tourists have a chance to explore the Tai Dam museum to observe traditional houses, items used in their daily life or traditional costumes. The villagers can organise workshops for making colourful mobiles called tum nok tum nu or set up lunch or dinner of Tai Dam food for visitors.
“During the early Covid epidemic, we were afraid of welcoming strangers. We closed our village from outsiders until last month. We introduced the weekend walking street so that when visitors come to our village they can stay longer and spend more,” he said.
The walking street is quite bright with 3,000 decorative lightbulbs. The village expects to expand the site from the existing 300m to cover the whole 700m street and plans to decorate it with 7,000 lightbulbs in the future.
From the village, we headed to the old town of Chiang Khan to spend the night. Our hotel was facing the Mekong. Although it was a scenic and peaceful view, the current of the river was strong. Perhaps it is like the fast development in Chiang Khan that has changed a once-sleepy town more than a decade ago to one of the country’s top tourism destinations. I only wish that the town can sustain its charms and the change will be for the better.