'Zai Jian' (goodbye) to China - 'Sabaidee' (hello) to Laos!

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Up very early next morning, after an uncomfortable night, we scrambled over the rows of motorbikes in the hotel foyer and pulled our suitcases through the damp streets of Menglun to the nearby bus station. It was only a two hour drive, again through fog shrouded hills and valleys, to Mengla. Mengla certainly had a lot more going for it then Menglun - including a brand new shiny bus station. We had an hour to wait for our connecting bus so filled in the time people watching as we ate a late breakfast in a cafe at the bus station. Jerry was pretty happy as he got the best plate of fried rice he had eaten so far that trip! I saw a couple of beautifully dressed ethnic women wearing indigo tunics which were finely embroidered with purple and pink stitches. They didn't allow me to photograph them and we had not seen a costume similar previously.

A mini van took us the last hour to the border crossing between China and Laos - Boten, a busy town on the Chinese side - and onwards to Mohan, a mere straggly strip of houses, on the Laotian side. The contrast in the two was very obvious. We passed through Chinese customs the day before our 60 day visa expired and were soon pulling our luggage across the narrow dusty strip of road - No Mans Land - towards the golden stupa and gate into Laos. Had we overstayed our visas we would have been made to pay 500 yuan each per day over the expiration date. We filled out the requested visa forms and paid a little too much for our visas (we used up the last of our Chinese yuans instead of paying in $US dollars) so a premium price was requested. Bonus for the staff no doubt!

We were sad to leave China - it had been as, all time in a foreign country is - two months of highs and lows. China now was very different in many ways to the China we knew in 2005. The cities are far too big and very demanding to spend time in. We did thoroughly enjoy Guizhou Province, a little sorry we didn't visit there a couple of years ago before the major highways were built but very pleased we chose to go there this year and not in the next couple of years. The cold chased us away from reaching the base of the Himalayan Mountains - we could have coped had we had warm rooms to return to each evening but hotel heating is non existent in that region. And you need hotel heating for minus fifteen degree temperatures. We loved Shangri La though and I will never forget the magical few hours we spent on the roof of the gompa amidst its golden spires. Yunnan was very much as we remembered it, busier but familiar. Yangshuo is stunning all the time I'm sure and it was an ideal spot to enjoy Chinese New Year celebrations.

One thing unfortunately that hadn't changed were public toilets - I don't think there was a public toilet I used (outside of the odd 5* hotel foyer) that could be called clean. Even the airport toilets generally left a lot to be desired. Bus station toilets are a memory best forgotten... Our favourite places were the Yuanyang Rice Terraces, Baishu Tai and pretty the countryside surrounding the village, Shaxi and Zhoaxing. Highly recommend all places, now sooner than later. The pandas were still as adorable as ever... We won't miss customer service in shops and many restaurants. We were (as the local people were as well) treated at best with disinterest - worst with complete rudeness. The majority of the people were extremely welcoming though, particularly the elderly people. Some of the younger generation are totally self centred and in fact quite obnoxious on occasion. I doubt that young people with that attitude are going to happily support their elderly relatives - another strong cultural practice quickly dying out in China.

And I will miss the crazy winter fashions - almost sorry I won't be there to witness the summer ones. I was pleased to shed my many winter layers though have absolutely no regrets we travelled during the winter and therefore off season. China today is also not a cheap travel destination - in fact at times we were shocked at the price of everyday items in supermarkets etc. The average Chinese person must either be earning a lot more than we suspect - or they are finding it difficult to make ends meet. Most nights our accommodation cost $25 -often much more then we expected. Most cheaper hotels (and I wouldn't like to stay in them anyway after our final night in the country) are not licenced to accept foreigners as guests. Food was generally cheap at street stalls but the opposite at most simple restaurants. Breakfast is rarely part of the room rate and we paid $10 to $12 each morning for a simple egg and fruit breakfast. Evening meals with drinks were always double that.

So we left China, looking forward to the next few weeks of warmer weather and a more relaxed pace. However after being stamped into Laos we found ourselves virtually on an empty road - empty except for the taxi touts who immediately offered to drive us onward to Luang Prabang for ridiculously overpriced fares. We decided to wait - they all wanted 200 yuan and above - the local bus charged virtually nothing and we knew one would pass by eventually. We eventually got tired of their pestering and in the end Jerry approached a local man who had just driven through the border. He offered him a 100 yuan note to take us onwards. An offer he very quickly agreed to - he realised what had happened and laughed in the taxi drivers faces as he pocketed our money. The taxi instantly dropped their prices. We were very happy to give the young man the cash - coincidently we found out he was taking his wife into Luang Namtha to go shopping (we collected her enroute) so he was happy with the extra cash in his pocket to spend. It was actually a one hour drive - we had forgotten how far from the border Luang Namtha was - so would have been worth the thirty dollars the taxis were asking for. Their pushy attitude and general rudeness is hard to take sometimes though.

The tiny town of Luang Namtha hadn't changed much at all - it was still as sleepy as we remembered from our previous visit in January 2010. Though there were a few more guesthouses most appeared to be half empty. Luang Namtha is currently going through a downturn in tourist numbers - the locals think in part it is due to the rapid increase of rubber plantations in the area. The main reason people visit here is to trek through the surrounding minority villages. We did that last trip and had no desire to do it again. Had we had any desire to do it I doubt we would have as it was hot - and after the cold of China the heat really knocked us for a few days.

We stayed in the Trip Advisor recommended Zuela Guesthouse (70,000 kip - with 8,000 kip to the Aussie dollar- you soon learn to drop all the zeros!). it was comfortable enough though the rooms were dark and we suspect that some of the bed linen is not changed between guests. It wasn't until we actually slept in the sheets we became aware of suspicious staining on them. We decided to ignore it as we were only staying for two nights anyway. Visited the Forrest Cafe operated by a young New Zealand couple who are happily living in the town to enjoy a mug of flat white coffee (the first in a long time) before partaking of a spit roast chicken at the night market which is in the centre of the town. There were a lot of tourists eating at the market that evening. The market sold a few souvenir items and had a dozen food stalls, all virtually selling spit roasts. Hmong tribes women, dressed in colourful clothes, were attempting to sell some textiles to the tourists with little success.

Early next morning we walked up to the Wat (temple) set above the town where an old man, after we had paid our donation of a few kip, opened the door which was set into the base of the stupa for us and allowed us inside the small altar area. He was proud of the gold Buddhas within and we were amused to see the Laotian flag as well as the Communist flag hanging beside the statues. We planned on finding the local market but it had moved from its previous spot and We soon decided not to bother to find it. At barely 10am in the morning we escaped the heat and spent the remainder of the day in our air conditioned room or a nearby cafe. Up early next morning for the long tiring trip to Luang Prabang.

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