Crossing with the worldwide border crew...

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After being given some helpful advice from our guesthouse lady in Hanoi we'd decided to cross from Vietnam to Laos by the Dien Bien Pu/Tay Trang crossing in the far North. This was a triple bonus for us as it meant that we could spend an extra day in Sapa, we saved money on getting the train back to Hanoi and we would enter Laos in the far North which is exactly where we wanted to be.

Our first stage of the journey was a minibus ride from Sapa to Dien Bien Pu. It was in this minibus that we met our fellow worldwide travelling crew who we would spend the next few days with. It was a relief to us to have quite a big group as this border crossing was relatively new and as with most border crossings it's a case of safety in numbers to minimiye the risk of getting ripped off left right and centre. The people was a great mix with 2 Germans (Max & Yinca), 1 fellow Brit (Mary), 3 Argentinian (Natalie, Alexandro & Rodrigo), 1 Aussie (Ann, who we'd spent time with in Nha Trang) and 2 Canadians (Mike & Jen). We all got to know each other pretty well being squeezed into a tiny minibus with no leg room for 10 hours on a hot and steamy day.

The journey was actually ok despite being stopped numerous times because today seemed to be the day when the road workers decided they all had to bulldoze huge rocks from above onto the road then move them away. This was actually a blessing as it meant we could get out and stretch our legs at regular intervals so we did't really mind too much. We even had a lunch stop in a remote place which had one dubious restaurant where we enjoyed rice and some non descript soup dishes but it was cheap so again no moaning from us!

We arrived in Dien Bien Pu at 5.30pm and found that the hotels here have the price pretty much sewn up between them obviously knowing that there is only one bus out a day so people have no option but to stay there the night. We tried everywhere but couldn't find a room for less than 150,000D which is well above what we'd been used to paying thoughout out time in Vietnam. It stung even more when there was no hot water and we only needed a bed for a few hours as we had to be up at 5am the following day anyway.

Our bus to Muang Khua in Laos left at 5.30am and we all stacked on a little bleary eyed armed with our cake & biscuit breakfasts. We were all then less than impressed when the driver pulled into a local restaurant only 2 minutes down the road where he stopped for 3/4 hour to enjoy his noodle breakfast while we sat on the bus wondering what was going on! Why he couldn't have done this before and given us all a few more minutes shut eye we have no idea but this is Asia and many things are unexplainable so you just have to go with it! On we went making stops many more times for more passengers, a car engine and a truck load of noodles and eventually got to 30km point of the Vietnam exit border which we all breezed through.

Another few kms along a very windy mountain road and we reached possibly the most picturesque border office in the world... the Laos one! This is set high on a mountain side with wonderful views all around of the forested mountainsides. The processing for our visas took a good few hours so we got to enjoy this scenery taking many snaps and spotting a strange huge leaf insect too which made the time pass quickly enough.. well for us anyway.. the poor locals just had to sit in the bus while this all happened but as we'd sat there long enough for them to load their stuff on we didn't feel too bad. Visas granted ok and the 'overtime' fees of $1 and visa stamp fee of another $1 paid we piled back in the bus and followed the very steep dusy and windy road to our destination. Along the way we stopped off at a small village just past the border where we picked up 2 American guys who'd tried to do the crossing without the aid of the bus we were on and had got stuck at the border and walked the whole way down to this village.. so note to other travellers.. make sure you get this bus as there are no other options!

After another hour or so on this bus we arrived in Muang Khua which was a bit of a shock to the system after being used to a much more Westernized lifestyle in Vietnam. The difference as soon as you cross over the border is incredible but mostly for the good. For a start the people are instantly much more welcoming on the Laos side than their neighbour and are all keen to talk to you and practice their English. Secondly the houses are so different.. there really aren't many brick houses here and we were greeted with this 'main transport hub' town settled nicely on the river being mainly wooden and bamboo constructions on stilts but we all loved it and it's scenic setting, we even quite liked the way we had to get a little boat man to take us across the river for an extortinate amount as it was novel and new! Some of the group had other places to be so for the meantime we said bye to half the group while Max & Yinca and Mike & Jen and ourselves all found a nice guesthouse on the riverfront to rest our heads for the night...

The following morning we all needed to change our $s for Kip so Max, Mike & Sophie headed to the 'bank'. We were all amused to find that the bank was a wooden structure with the security features being iron railings on the window and big iron shutters held together with a small padlock. Thankfully things start early here so it was open at 8am and although we weren't first in line they let us push in to change our money. Inside got better as the cashier was seated behind glass but next to him was an open door that not only led to him but the office next to him which housed the 'safe'. This could clearly be seen from the front and was just a wooden beside cabinet stacked with notes. Although we thougt how easy it would be to rob the banks here we figured that you probably wouldn't get very far on the one terrible road out of here so they proabably have no worries of that kind in this neck of the woods. After many pieces of paperwork to change our money we all left armed with enough kip to last us a few days until we reached Luang Prabang and a much needed ATM.

It took us a while to decide whether to get the bus or boat to Luang Prabang, we all really wanted to go by boat but it cost a lot more than the bus and would involve a night in the village of Nong Khiaw on the way. In the end we all decided the boat trip would be well worth it so along with another French couple we chartered a boat for 110,000kip each and we set sail down the Nam Ou river.

The 6 hour trip was a great one although a little noisy! As we went along we passed many many small bamboo villages set on the river banks all with a group of small nudie children swimming or playing in the water and waving frantically as we passed. We enjoyed more beautiful Laos scenery too with limestone karsts to each side of us with the only thing spiling the view being the smoke from the slash & burn farmers. This is something we saw much of throughout our time in Laos and is very sad to see as huge areas of primary forest are chopped down in order to make fields to grow crops, sadder still is that they only use these areas for 2 years as it is then useless so they chop down another area causing massive deforestation throughout the country. After a few hours we dropped the French couple off at Muang Ngoi Neua where we all wished we could have stayed ourselves if we had more Kip as it looked beautiful, but we continued on for another hour until we reached Nong Khiaw.

Yet another lovely little village set either side of the Nam Ou but this was a little more built up than the previous village, mainly because there is actually a road that connects this town to Luang Prabang so they have a lot more tourist traffic passing though. We had a lovely noodle lunch by the river and set out to find ourselves a bed for the night which was relatively easy and very cheap too! Sadly between the 6 of us we only had enough kip to last us one more night so we set out straight away to explore the area in the few hours we had there and tried to find the local cave & waterfall that were supposed to be in walking distance of the town centre.

Although it was late in the day it was still pretty hot and after we'd walked a few kms we were all pretty tired and couldn't face continuing on for the 2 or so kms the locals told us it would be to the waterfall so we headed back. On the way we passed a nice restaurant so had a well deserved beer to watch the sun go down over the mountains and enjoyed the company of 2 small Lao children who took great delight in showing us the butterfly they'd caught. By the time we got back to our (very basic for 25,000kip!) rooms the power that was supposed to come on at 6pm hadn't so we spent the evening trying to find things in our bags, shower and eat by candlelight.. not easy when the man who owns the bamboo huts keeps telling you to keep the candles away from the walls in case the whole place goes up! We managed to get to sleep eventually though.. there really wasn't much else to do as we didn't have enough beer money to get drunk!

Yet another early start the following day.. our 4th in a row... and we went back across the bridge to the main part of the village to find out about getting to Luang Prabang that day before we completely ran out of money and were stranded (which actually wouldn't have been so bad as it was really nice there!). We managed to find out that a Jumbo (old pick up truck with 2 rows of seats each side) was the first thing to go at 7.30am so booked our tickets and went to the nearest cafe to have breakfast while we waited..

We loaded our bags onto the jumbo just before it was time to go but when we turned round the jumbo was driving off without us but with our bags... so yes we panicked! We left it for a minute thinking that he'd be back but he showed no signs of returning so after another minute we asked the bus ticket desk who reassured us that the jumbo was just going off to pick up some people but would be back in no time.. it took a full 20 minutes with us all half joking half worrying that we may never see our worldy belongings again but as promised it did return with bags in check and then was our time to be loaded on.. along with the 10 other people (the jumbos are made for 6) and 2 basketfuls of chickens (still live).

The 4 hour ride was quite fun passing though lots of lots of small villages and more wonderful mountains along the way and we got to Luang Prabang around lunchtime but this wasn't met with the best start.. in Laos, like many other towns they seem to think it's a good idea to build the bus stations about 10km outside town which gives the local tuk tuk drivers a good excuse to rip you off and give you a ride to the centre for almost as much as you have paid for a 4 hour ride there! But we were here and looking foward to seeing yet another beautiful UNESCO World Heritage city...

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Photos

Muang Khua
OUr first town in Laos!

Even cuter dog
with such huge ears!