BORDER CROSSING, VIETNAM TO LAO

The journey begun on my 81^st day of travel. I had been warned not to do it, but like any other warning I just waved it off. I woke up at 6:30am and noticed that the beds in the dorm had been moved around. The floor was covered in water... everything was soaked except for my bed. So I took it as a sign of good luck... but I may had spoken to soon. The overcrowded minivan came to get me at 7:30am... the windy road took us from one mountain top to the next with a mysterious air lingering all around us.

And there it was, the first sign... we had to wait for half an hour because a car was stuck in the mud, and although entertaining to see how many men it took to get it out, we got covered in mud as well. 

The minivan crew consisted of: an older American couple, a middle-aged Spanish couple, Beca a pastry chef from England, Andy from New Zealand who turned out to be an incredible guitar player and some Vietnamese people including a puking  girl. The poor thing did not stop throwing up for the whole 10 hours. We got dropped off in the afternoon and had to get a room for the night, as the minivan would continue its journey the next morning at 5am. We roamed around town trying to find a place to eat but the best we got were some deep fried burgers... yum :S

It was 5 am and it was pouring rain. To top it off, we had to put our backpacks on top of the bus.... we had some new members join including a very large mean looking French guy (I couldn't understand how he was smoking cigarettes at that early hour) and Alex and Nicola an Irish couple.

The border crossing went just fine but the fun and games began at 10:30am when the bus driver stopped at a small town and told us to go “eat rice” at the only restaurant in the place.  We obediently had some rice with bamboo shoots, spring rolls and veggies. After about an hour, we were hoping to get back on the bus and get going. I went in the bus and fell asleep only to wake up after 45 minutes and realized that we hadn’t moved one inch.  We weren’t really sure of what was going on but when we asked the driver he said that we had to sleep there because the bridge was closed. The assistant driver was the only one who spoke English and he kept walking away in the middle of asking him questions and then laughed. We were starting to get frustrated but there was nothing we could do ....

We sat around playing cards, drinking  Beer Lao and watching the rain. We also met Ben, a Canadian who had gotten stuck in the Vietnamese bus behind ours. The boys all went to check what was wrong with the bridge but they came back with a video of cars crossing the so called “closed” bridge.  We were starting to get the feeling that we were being cheated. Then, to add to it all, the assistant driver told us that the bus was going to take us back to Vietnam the next morning... problem being that most of us couldn’t go back to Vietnam because they have no visas on arrival plus we had wasted 2 days traveling already.  

The "Closed" Bridge

When we had lost all hope the Spanish couple came running and told us that they had found a pickup truck that would take us to Muang Khua and was waiting on the other side of the bridge. As we were getting our backpacks the French guy took out a knife and slashed the tires of the bus. When I got sight of what was happening I grabbed my backpack and ran for my life.

Our ride... 

We got on the pickup truck, all 7 of us huddling at the back. It was still raining and we were sitting on the floor covered by a plastic tarp like runaway refugees. We laughed off our escape and managed to get the guitar out to lighten the mood but the road was dark and foggy. There were landslides along the way and at one point we crossed through a river.

At 8pm we made it to the edge of our destination but there was one more challenge.... since it was so late, the ferry was not in service and we had to get across a huge river because all the hostels and what not were on the other side. Eventually we found a guy who called his mom, and she brought her canoe and helped us cross in small groups. The current was pretty strong at it was pitch black but we managed to get everyone to the other side.

I was exhausted, the things in my backpack were wet, and we hadn’t had any food since the 10:30 am lunch so we went out for a celebratory group dinner after which I passed out, I couldn’t have been happier about seeing a bed....

The next morning (3^rd day of travel) we went to the bus station early to make sure we could catch a bus out (didn’t want to get stuck again) we needed to make sure there was room for the 8 of us. We grabbed some pho for breakfast while the French guy downed a few beers. When the bus came we were forced to put our backpacks on top AGAIN...but the ride was smooth.

At noonish, we made it to Udomaxi and split ways.  Ben and Andy were going to do the Gibbon Experience and so I ended up joining them. Our next destination:  Luang Nam Tha. Once there, we found some guy who took us to Ban Don Chai a tiny village in the middle of nowhere... to see if we could book the Gibbon Experience from there. We found the right place, it was a little restaurant on the road, but by the time we got there, the office was closed so we had to wait until the next morning. There was yet another Canadian there already, her name was Katherine and she was leaving for the Gibbon Experience the next morning but ill just have to make that a whole new story.