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Published: November 11th 2008
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(Day 220 on the road)I had read horror stories (robbed of all belongings at knife-point, left in the middle of nowhere etc) about the Vietnamese-Laos border crossing I was going to take at Cau Treo, but to say it up front, it luckily went pretty smooth. From Ninh Binh, I took a train (supposedly four hours, but it took a good six and a half) to Vinh, where I spent the night in a very seedy hotel. I had not yet completed the check-in but was already offered a "massage". Also, but by now that didn't surprise me, the price that I had been quoted initially (110.000 for the room) turned into 140.000 when it came to paying. At that point, I was so sick and tired of the Vietnamese, I actually paid it without too much fuss.
The next morning I made my way to the bus station. A guy there approached me wanting to "help me", and said he could get me a ticket for 150.000 all the way to the Laos border. I told him the price should be more like 80.000 (which is about right), when he got offended and asked me if I didn't trust
him. I told him, as a matter of fact, I didn't. And, this being Vietnam, of course it turned out that he was a little liar. I bought the bus ticket myself, and after they tried to charge me about 15 times of the real ticket price (which was actually displayed at the ticket office, it could not not have been any more obvious), I was on my way. In the end, the total price, including a motorbike to the actual border from where the bus had dropped me off), came to just over 100.000, a good 30% less than the guy who was so helpful would have charged me. The last 25 km to the border went through some extraordinary beautiful landscape, and so did the motorbike I took later on the Laos side.
At the Vietnamese border, there was a big bus and all its passengers hanging around. I soon found out why: The only Vietnamese border guard was fast asleep behind the counter on his bench. I waited a while and then decided to wake him up. Surprisingly, he actually got up and processed my passport. He asked for a 1$ stamp fee, which I refused.
He then refused to give me my passport back. I was so tired of this, I did nothing for a good while and simply didn't talk to him. After a while, he gave up and gave me the passport back. I actually think I could have crossed the border without all this, as there was no one else around watching me.
On the Laos side, I had to wait a while in the no man's land between the countries as the border was closed for lunch, but I was invited by the Laos' border guards for lunch and beer. What a nice welcome! Issuing of the visa and the crossing where simple enough, and before I knew it I was in Laos, happy to leave Vietnam and its sneaky people behind. Once in Laos, there was absolutely nothing there (no bus, motorbike-taxi or else), so in lack of anything else to do I started walking down the only possible road. After about 30 minutes, I came across a small hut, where I managed to convince the friendly owner to take me on his motorbike to the next bigger town, Lak Sao. I stayed the night there in this very remote village with its incredibly friendly people - what a change from Vietnam! I spent the rest of the day wandering its market and dusty streets, getting a haircut and talking to the smiling locals, and was soon invited to watch Thai boxing with them on TV, which was good fun. The next morning, I caught the the bus to Vientiane, the capital of Laos.
Next stop: Vientiane (Central Laos).
To view my photos, have a look at
pictures.beiske.com. And to read the full account of my journey, have a look at the complete
book about my trip at Amazon (and most other online book shops).
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