Travel from Vietnam to Laos

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Rain , Rain and Rain! The northwestern Vietnam was recently effected by heavy rain but I can not delay the trip from Hanoi via Dien Bien to Laos. The night bus left My Dinh station - Hanoi while some streets at this area was flooded. There were no much passengers since many locals were afraid of the roads conditions. My but trip went smoothly, delivered me to Dien Phu Town. But it was no bus from this town to Laos today. My destination in Laos is Pakbeng , Oudomxay province, 350km from Dien Bien Town. I took this trip several times and known the road conditions quite well. Many bus companies do not want to serve the passengers due to the bad weather.

Luckily I found one pick up truck from Asianventure Tours based in Vietnam but it has resort project in Oudomxay. The driver agreed to help me on this trip. Much changes since the new road Tay Trang - Muong Khoa was open. No ferry to cross anymore on nam Ou river near Muong Khoa. I beleive that my trip will be stopped in Muong Khoa if we still need to take this very old ferry in high rainfall. I had short stop in Muong Khoa , base for many tourists who want to travel to Muong Ngoy by Nam Ou River, and found a small eating spot near bus stop. The food is tottally different from what of Vietnam. Sticky rice, grilled port , .. are only things I can find in place. Good suggestion for floowing tourists is that they need to buy some food for this trip. I continued the trip across Oudomxay on bumpy road to Pakbeng and has seen some tourist heading towards Luang Prabang by bike. This area is also ideal for biking activities. I think I will try next time on biking trip. Anyone aim to join my trip in Nov, 2013 Dien Bien - Oudomxay ?

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