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Since my last blog I've done rather a lot so I won't even try to describe all of it. In short I've been to Halong Bay, done some trekking in Sapa and come into Laos, making my way to the former capital of Luang Prabang.
Sapa was very good, we were drinking on the last night with some local people, who were great fun, although one girl, who was a bit drunk, was playfighting with us, which was fine at first, but eventually quite painful, she sort of rugby tackled me at one point and started tickling me with these great long nails like needles, but I laugh/grimaced it off. I was quite relieved when i got to bed.
The trip into Laos was something I will never forget- it has been branded indelibly onto my memory. We set off from Sapa in the far north of Vietnam for Dien Bien Phu, the scene of France's humiliating defeat and the nearest town to the Lao border. The first three hours were incredible- the most outrageously beautiful scenery you can imagine; soaring peaks, some shrouded in mist and some perfectly clear. The road was brand new and snaked smoothly all around. We got a flat tyre in a valley but this was replaced fairly quickly and on we went, so far, so good, we looked at the map and optimistically concluded that maybe we'd be there in as few as 6 hours, not the advertised 8-10. How wrong we were.
THe section of road we'd enjoyed so much was in fact so new that rest of it hadn't been finished yet. For 4 hours we slogged through 50km of roadworks. At this, all the discomfort of the journey, which had hitherto been concealed by the awe-inspiring beauty of our surroundings, came into sharp focus. The bus was tiny and of the sort we don't have in the UK for safety reasons, where there are three seats, an aisle and a small seat which folds into the aisle when the row behind is full but doesn't fix to the chair next to it, meaning it throws its occupant onto their neighbour on corners. This was all the worse due to the fact that Vietnamese people a) suffer from terrible travel sickness and don't always throw away the bags at toilet breaks (of which there were few), which can;t be helped and b) have a habit of hackingg up great gobbits of phlegm to add to the brew, creating a an accompaniment of retching and vomiting. The road, being compressed rocks and mud, did much to exacerbate the first problem. Our driver was an angry person. When we hit a rock the size of a railway sleeper with the back wheels, the answer was not to go round it, but through it, only after 4 attempts was this successful; he picked fights with other drivers and drove off without our very friendly attendant, who spent much of the journey leaping back onto the bus. Needless to say the communist era bus did not have suspension.
The novelty of this quickly wore off and when we finally got back onto paved road it was a great relief, marred only by our driver driving maniacally fast to release his effervescing inner-rage. Nonetheless, this was beautiful and we saw lots of cheesy 'rural scenes' on the way, endless Water Buffalo, people in conical hats in rice paddies, bamboo cottages and the like. We arrived in Dien Bien PHu, which is a dump, but fortunately we got the bus the next morning (at 5- shudder) and set off for the Lao border.
The next day's travel to Laos carried similar pleasures in a bus which maxxed out at 30 mph and had 3 gears. We had to walk over the building site this time to reach the brand new border control. There was a sign listing visa prices for different nationalities, 'New Zerland' was obvious enough, as was 'Blagladesh' although we never worked out what 'Burstal' was meant to be.... On the Lao side I adopted a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy on whether we were going to fall off the cliff edge, which was often about half a foot from our wheels, as we drove along the, again, unfinished road (unfinished road= compressed mud).
I realise I lavish a lot of attention on bus trips, but they are a major feature of the life of any traveller here, I spend an awful lot of time on them!
It was, in the end, when I knew that we didn't all die, one of the most amazing experiences of my life. We arrived in Muong Khua in Laos, which is very remote, there were only 11 Westerners in the whole town and there was no internet at all, or power at some times of day. We'd had it with buses so got the boat down river (very nice) to another town, where I stayed for to days, rekking through villages and waterfalls.
I love Laos, it's very undeveloped, many villages don't have any power and are only accessible by river and there are children EVERYWHERE, always swimming in rivers. They have gigantic families. The people are so, so friendly and kind and I've noticed I've never had to pay more than the locals on buses and in restaurants. I got a bit scared when I saw a scorpion on the road and a snake in the jungle.
My time is rapidly running out, but meeting up with Chris and Paul soon, which will be a really cool way to end the Asian leg of my trip. Having a fantastic time and don't want to leave!
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uncle rich
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all sounds a world away as indeed it is. you will no doubt have heard of hung parliaments and volcanic ash; these are the new developments over here. As Jeremy Paxman asked of Simon Hughes on Election Night ' would you like to get into bed with Peter Mandelson?' All very green but decidedly chilly for the time of year in the nature corner. Finding it difficult to write anything of significance myself but I am very much enjoying your blogs, thanks very much!