Laid-back Laos

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  Lak Sao, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Thursday, March 15, 2007

Today we took yet more local transport to get us to Laos, which involved motos, a bus, a minibus, a walk, and a songthaew (pick-up truck).  We think we were fleeced on every leg of the journey, except for the walk, but nevertheless, a good few dollars lighter, we arrived at Lak Sao, about 26km from the border just after lunch.  Not bad going.  We had thought, on the first bus from Vinh bus station, that we were never going to make it, because for about the first hour of the journey the driver went at an infuriatingly slow pace - I'm talking about 5 miles an hour at the most - presumably in order to drum up enough custom to go most of the way with a full bus.  We sat there steaming and desperate to shout at him to get a move on.  But we managed to hold our tongues and eventually he got going at a pace that was a little too fast for comfort.  Honestly, there's no pleasing us.  At Tay Son we had to transfer to a minibus to the border.  The crossing itself was a little long and boring but there were no problems, and once through to the other side we immediately picked up the songthaew (no we don't know how to pronounce it either) to take us to Lak Sao. 

Lak Sao is a pretty quiet, sleepy little place where nothing really seems to happen, and it certainly showed us the laidback attitude that the Laotians are famous for.  When we wandered around the market we had to wake up stallholders to serve us!  It makes a nice change from the Vietnamese who were much more 'lively'.  After a long journey and not having drunk enough water on the journey, we were in need of refreshment, so we treated ourselves to a sugar-cane juice, which is a fabulously refreshing drink popular all over South East Asia, made by pushing sugar cane wrapped around half a lime through a mangle-type device and served over loads of ice.  I'm sure it's hell for your teeth, but it's perfect in the Asian heat.  Speaking of which, we were pretty shocked by how much difference a couple of hundred kilometres can make to the temperature.  Having been a bit too cold for the last week and a half, we're now very hot.  I'm sure we'll get used to it again, but for now it's a bit of a shock. 

We ended the day in the OnlyOne Restaurant, which was not quite the only restaurant in town, but certainly the only one that tourists ever go to.  There we introduced ourselves to Lao food with Laap, which is minced meat (in this case beef) mixed with chillies, lime juice and fragrant herbs.  We quite liked it, but we want to try it again somewhere else before making a firm decision on whether or not it's good!   (R)

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