A Night in Boten, Laos-China Border

Heyya..

Boten is a gambling town, which is located at the border of China in Luang Namtha district.. Since it is illegal to have casinos in China (except for Macau), most of Chinese-border countries have built casinos.. Boten town has few casino hotels to choose from.. In which I stayed at the biggest hotel, which has the biggest casino in Boten town, called Golden Boten City Casino Hotel..

The night at Golden Boten City Casino Hotel was wonderful.. The hotel staff were very friendly and allowed me to park in front of the hotel main entrance.. I was told before that a group of Malaysian bikers were not entertained by the hotel.. maybe they were not presentable when they arrived at the hotel front desk.. in my case, they even allowed me to park at the valley parking spot.. maybe because I ride BMW bike? I could never tell..

I arrived at Boten on Chinese New Year’s Eve in February and it was during winter season in North of Laos - China.. 

I felt like i was a Hero, welcoming back from war.. Hahaa!!

My first room at the hotel didn’t have the air-heater working perfectly so the hotel management quickly arranged for a new room with a great view of Boten town..

From my room, I could get whole view of Boten at night.. They had huge fireworks display which lasted for 2 hours.. All restaurants were fully booked and also the casinos..

I entered few casinos in Boten, the high-roll and low-roll casinos.. most of the hotel and restaurant staffs would gamble in low-roll casinos while the rich would go to the hotel casinos..

I had dinner along the casino and night club area.. it was my first time to have an outdoor dinner in cold winter evening, totally a new culture for me.. It is a restaurant but it didn't have doors and windows.. The open air restaurant served barbeque meat; anything from chicken, beef, fish, and frogs.. Also, they have Shing Tao and HOB beer, served in small glasses..

After dinner, I found out a row of shops selling fruits.. there were pretty unique fruits and mostly imported from China, which I haven’t seen them before.. One of them was a sweet winter melon with the size of an orange.. The fruit was tiny, but it was the sweetest melon I’ve ever tasted..

The next morning, I went to the border check point of Laos and China.. Like every part of Laos, the customs and immigration officers were very friendly.. Snapped couple of photos at the border..

The border was very busy in the morning.. there was almost a huge traffic coming from China as they were travelling to Laos during Chinese New Year long holiday.. They had to drive in a group of 10 with a Laos tour guide at the front.. The group of 10 cars would be driven 30 minutes from the next group..

Went to the infamous [China Border : 1km] road sign.. snapped couple of photos to prove I was there, by myself, Solo..

Then refueled the bike using Ron 91 fuel at Boten town.. initially I was hoping there are lots of things to be seen at Boten.. but the town has nothing apart of Casinos..

Therefore i went back to the hotel, re-packed my stuff and checked-out from the Golden Boten City Casino Hotel..

Opened the Laos map.. Found Luang Prabang on the map.. and decided to ride to Luang Prabang.. 

Yes, it looked easy on the Map..

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But it ain’t !!!!

<< Laos Solo Ride Day 2: Ayutthaya - Boten, Laos (Part II)

Laos Solo Ride Day 3: Boten - Luang Prabang >>

HooRahh!!