The story from Laos to Vietnam!
Trip Start
Apr 20, 2004
1
12
21
Trip End
Mar 30, 2005
Hue,
Vietnam
Saturday, August 14, 2004
Just thought we would drop you a line to let you know that we are still alive and kicking. We are currently in a place called Hue which is in central vietnam, more about that later. We just wanted to keep you up to date with what has happened over the last few weeks.
Laos is a fairly basic country and has the unwanted record of being the most bombed country per head of capita in the history of the world. America bombed this place to bits during the Vietnam war but at the time neglected to tell anybody in our part of the world.
Overall my impressions of Laos are that it is incredible place both in terms of the friendship shown by its people as well as the countries incredible scenery.
We started our trip to Laos with a ferry trip across the river to the border checkpoint. The checkpoint conisisted of a small concrete hut where a guy in a uniform stamped your passport. Impressive indeed!
We then made our way to the aptly named SLOW boat where we would spend our next two days being bored witless. The slow boat was basically a converted cargo boat with lots of lovely little DIY seats that where unfortunately not designed by chiropracters! After a few hours all contact with my bum was lost and the only thing that saved me was the fantastic views.On top of this the owners of the boat tried to force about 50 people too many into the boat. A bloody chicken in a battery farm had more room than us. But as we were all in the same boat (literly) the atmosphere was good.
Big Tree on 4000 islands
The boat wobbled constantly and the owners screamed in Laos at people not to move about due to fear of capsizing the boat but we made it to Lua Prabang at the end of day two all in one piece.During the long trip down river we saw the poor unfortunates who had taken the more expensive trip in speed boats. Basically they are small single hulled boats which had a car engine strapped on. The occupants looked absolutely petrified as they hurlted by at 50MPH. This is pretty fastin a river which has loads of debris floating in it at any time. After seeing loads of these guys go by I dont think anyone on our boat would have swapped boats for love nor money. They where able to do our two day trip in 3.5 hours but if they had of hit a log or other debris they may have become fishfood.
Lua Prabang is quite a small place much smaller than Navan but was the old capital of Laos. We went to a travel agent recommened by the Lonely planet as the best in town. We walked in and the guy looked at us if we where from another planet. We asked about trips and everything cost $65 american dollars. This was a bit strange as everyhwhere else in town the tips where 5-8 bucks. He also told us that his trips where too expensive and advied us on how to do the trips cheaply. It was the complete opposite from a hard sell and I can only presume that the place is setup for moneylaundering or something. The "city" was absoltuely littered with Wats (temples) As we were still templed out from India and Thailand there was no real attarction so we made arrangements to go south to Vang Vien.
Vang Vien was an interesting place and we spent six nights there.
Children Working in Loas
The highlights included floating down the river in a tractor tube and stopping off at the various bars on our way. The Karst lanscape made the scenery absolutley stunning.Another great day was spent Kayaking and caving. I opted out of the caving bit as there where no lights and Roisin could barely fit in. It was actually more like potholing. We where in a pitch dark cave filled with water where we couldnt touch the bottom and my head was bumping off the roof and the guide asked us if we had any torches with us as he didnt have one. I dont think that the health and safety concept has reahed Laos yet. The Kayaking was good at one stage Roisin and my boat where hit by another boat and forced into the trees at the side of the river. The current in the river then forced us to capsize. We were then pinned against the boat and required assistance from several guides to free our boat and ourselves. Shortly therafer the guide asked me to switch boats as he said I was too heavy for the Kayak and that it might sink at the next rapids so I swapped Roisin for a little boat on my own. The git.
We then popped down to the capital Vientiane for a night. This is a fairly quite town, with not much happening, more of a stop over. So we booked a bus ticket to the four thousand islands in the very south of the country. There we spent a pleasant few days on an island called Don Khong. This place was so relaxed that it would take an earthquake to wake the people up. One of the days we cycled around the Island. It was covered in Paddy Fields along with Chickens geese and water buffalo.
Fruit Market in Hue
Quite a sight I have to admit. One day while sitting enjoying a quite beer, when we struck up a conversation with two mad Cork people and a couple of aussies at the next table, we decided to join them for a beer, one thing lead to another, and it all ended in chaos with us watching a man united v's arsnel match in the sitting room of the poeple who owned the guesthouse, along with some israelies - so much for our quite stay on an remote island!
But our time in Laos by this time had run out and we needed to make the move to Vietnam. We headed back north to a town called Pakse to try and arrange transport.
An Indian guy told us he could get us to Vietnam that day on a VIP bus with air con. We jumped at the chance and really thought he was doing us a favour.
On this occasion we where sold at an exorbitant price the trip from hell.
At 4PM we arrived at the bus the guy who sold us the ticket promised that we would arrive in Hue in Vietnam no later than 9AM. Our air condition VIP bus turned out to be none other than a piece of crap which would have passed for a modern bus during the second world war. Not only where most of the seats missing (replaced with garden chairs but the bus was full of all sorts of cargo including red bull custard creams, rice steamers, exotic caged birds, snails, puppies. Did I forget anyhting... Oh yes the entire smoking population of vietnam and Laos where on board as well.
Ah sure, we said this will be a good experience and we can mix with the locals (not likely as none of them spoke a word of english apart from a buddhist monk).
Halong Bay
The bus finally left at 5PM and travelled all off 7KM to a bus station north of town. Here it waited for two hours (AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH) Eventually we set off at 7:15PM and about three hours later where stopped by a dodgy looking police patrol they got everybody off the bus and put the bus through a rigourous Laos safety check. The bus was passed to continue (or the bribe was paid) and once more we set off. Did I mention that the driver was addicted to the centre line of the road and stuck to it like glue only swerving at the last moment to avoid oncoming traffic and bouncing from one side of the road to the other.About ten PM we suffered the tyre blow out and the entire bus filled with really stinking smoke which briefly was even stronger than the smoke from the 3 million smokers that we had on board. So once agin we all got off the bus and everybody crowded around to watch as the flat tyre was replaced. I grimaced as this was the only spare we had and it was likely that the way the driver was going that we were going to need more. Maybe he would ease off to preserve rubber. However the bus driver raced on as if his life depended on him reaching the border as quickly as possible. We reached the border at 2AM. You wouldnt have beleived how delighted I was to learn that the border didnt open until 7AM. So it was us and the seven million others in the back of a bus. After a sleepless night we eventually headed for the border checkpoint. To cut a long story short I can confirm that communist civil servants both in Laos and in Vietnam rank as the most inefficent in the world. It took us over two hours before we eventaully left the border area. Inconceivably the bus then immediately stopped for another hour break. We then lost our seat to more important cargo of custard creams and red bull even though we paid five times more than anyone else.
To cap matters the bus didnt go to the town we wanted to go to but dropped us ten KM outside (screwed again). Here at 2:30PM (not quite the promised 9AM) on the side of the main road we were left at the mercy of the bikers who charged us handsomely for the short trip into town.
Anyhow we made it and after three days can report that Hue is a lovely town and that we have receovered. What we have learned from the experience is never to take a local bus and be careful what you buy, as if it sounds too good to be true it is.
Tomorrow we are off to explore some war tunnels, and after that we are heading north to Hanoi.
We will update you all on our vietnam adventures as they happen... stay tuned..
Martin and Roisin
