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Published: November 25th 2006
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Bus journey from hell!
Does anyone know how to fix it!? We crossed the border into Laos from Thailand over the Mekong river. We decided to take the 7 hour bus journey to Luang Nam Tha - we had heard that the road was quite bad and that it was being upgraded at the moment, but thought if traffic was still allowed on it then it must be ok. We managed to catch the 9.30 bus (although it was 11 o'clock) and went on our merry way - what we hadn't realised was that 6 out of the 7 hours we were bascially driving on a construction site! Not only where the roads steep and windy, climbing mountains and subsequently back down them, but they were also only made of sand and mud. Our driver also only had one speed, (which I think most of them do) - which is flat out, regardless of whether you are going round a hairpin bend, or down a hill with a cliff edge over the side. Not surprisingly we had one very scary moment - there had just been about 10 minutes of rain and we were coming down a hill when the bus lost it's grip and went in to a full on skid
Trekking
Juan trying to work out how we get across.. - we only realised when we looked up and realised that we were facing the cliff and the back of the bus was practically hanging over the edge of a 100ft drop! We were then just about to crash into a lorry coming the other way when the driver managed to turn our skid in the other direction. At this point all the Laos people were standing up - they are very curious, so were all craning their necks to get a look out of the window..luckily the driver eventually got control and we came to stop at the bottom of the hill. Everyone was laughing nervously at this point and the only Laos man who could speak English was explaining that everyone thought "we were going to die", us too! After that, the journey passed relatively quietly with only a double puncture, a cracked backed window (which happened whilst trying to squeeze past a lorry) and nearly being driven off one of the construction lay-bys which went straight over the edge.
The next day we thought we'd opt for a slightly safer mode of transport and hired a couple of bikes to take in the sights of the
Great views
Down to Luang Nam Tha town. It is a very lush green area and the town is surrounded by mountains on all sides. We biked down to the waterfall passing though villages of various tribes - all the children love to wave and shout "sabadee" and then run off giggling hysterically. Later on in the day we found a boules set in the grounds of the guest house we were staying at - a french couple challenged us to a game and by chance we beat them at there own game! The few games that we played with them were punctuated with Sam testing out his limited French...I'm sure I heard a few "ooh, la, las" and "voilas" - very Del Boy!
On Wednesday we went out on a trek into the conservation area that surrounds the town. The Laos government are very aware of the damage that tourism can do to the environment so are trying to limit the number of people that go out into the jungle and the villages that are there. We had a fantastic day - we first visited an Ahka tribe, it was a big village with approx 230 people living it, our guide was great at explaining
Harvest time
Gathering up the rice their rituals and customs. Then surprisingly when we wouldn't buy any more bracelets or necklaces one of the ladies from the village tried to sell me one of the children - only 4,000 kip - approximately 20 pence.
The vegetation grows so quick here, trees that were 6ft high, are only a year old. We walked to the top of the hills, passing over streams and walking under the shady canopy of the trees. We had lunch near the top, which consisted of sticky rice, long green beans with beef, boiled eggs, chilli sauce and bananas, it was delicious. It was at this point that I discovered a leech on my ankle that had manged to attach itself through my sock!
It is harvest time at the moment so on our way down we could see many farmers cutting down their rice - they work extremely hard here..although most of what they grow they eat themselves leaving very little to sell and make money - the average family eats two tonnes of rice a year.
Laos has such a nice relaxed feeling about it, a lot more friendly and you become more involved with the local people than you do in Thailand. We are really looking forward to the next couple of weeks now, exploring the rest that Laos has to offer.
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susie
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I thought british transport was bad !! haha x