Hue to Laos

After two rainy days in Hue, complete with rain soaked walks through the imperial city, we decided to find warmer climes and make our way into Laos.  We had an amazing trip crossing from Vietnam into Laos. The day really started Saturday afternoon when we asked the owner of Halo Guest House to set up a trip for us to Savannakeht (Savan), Laos. I suggested she book the 6 am bus I had read about in the guides, but she said she knew a nicer one. She booked us on a bus that she said left at 7:30 am. After the booking, she informed us the scheduled departure would now be at 6:30 and we would be picked up in the lobby.

As good Western based travellers, we arose at 5:15 to make certain we were packed and ready to go downstairs by 6:15. We packed all of our various bits and descended into a dark lobby which was filled with motorbikes and bicycles (a common practice in Vietnam). The darkness obscured the one step between the two levels of the lobby. Rich unfortunately found it by tumbling over it while wearing a fully packed backpack. Relatively unscathed he did spend several minutes telling me this is the reason he hates the design of our deck. We then attempted to leave the hotel and found the front doors padlocked. It was a bit unnerving to realize that we had been locked in every night. (thoughts of the infamous coconut nightclub fire flashed in our heads) Keeping this long story reasonable, we exited and secured the last two bus seats before aisle seating began.

We found ourselves on a tour bus to the DMZ, and we, with a dozen or so others, were going to be dropped off at the Lao border where another bus would take us to Savan. So far so good, all the guidebooks said that it was a three-hour trip to the border crossing and we would have a nice tour and lecture on the way.

Well, the trip took a bit longer than I had expected, but it was a fabulously beautiful. We travelled a verdant river valley, with craggy peaks, and pastoral scenery. Sadly, this was not a picture-taking day, as it was rainy, and the windows were fogged, but we enjoyed the ride and the well-educated young Vietnamese woman who lectured about the war and the Ho Chi Minh trail.

At an abandoned US army base, we jettisoned the DMZ tourists and the rest of us continued on to the border. On the way we picked up a person who would “facilitate” our transfer into Laos, and due to my cultural confusions, I will call her Cruella. Cruella entered the bus full of piss and vinegar imploring us to change our Dong into Kip. Unfortunately, her exchange rate was nearly 25% below the published international trade rates. She indicated (in limited English) we would have no further chance to use our Dong if we did not change it now. (This turned out to be a fallacy, as the Lao visa could be purchased in Dong.)

About five hours after we departed, we arrived at the border. As we exited the bus Cruella became bureaucratic, offering us papers to fill out, grabbing them away from us, etc., obviously frustrated with these people who could not manage a border crossing. She hurried us through the Vietnam exit process, and was anxiously propelling us through the Laos immigration and visa process. After twenty minutes of confusion, and spending $41 dollars each, Rich and I were through the process. I thought Cruella said we needed to walk 100 meters and we would find the bus. After we travelled this distance in full pack, she came up on a moto saying we had .5 km more to walk to the bus. Being gracious, we agreed and continued to walk into Laos, and getting more and more wary as there was no bus in sight.

About 1.5 km later, we entered a small village and surprise (!), no bus. We were informed we had spent too much time to cross the border, and missed our bus. (If we did miss the bus, it would not be too surprising as we did take a circuitous route with our tour group.) Cruella had an intriguing alternative, a conveyance known a songthaeaw, an open back 2 ton pickup truck with two benches facing each other and with vinyl curtains I case of rain and to mitigate the wind. All fourteen of us were ushered into the truck. This was our "bus" to Sananaketh, a trip of five hours. I was beginning to feel taken advantage of by the situation until I realized that the experience and stories were worth the $15 per person ticket. 

The trip was less than direct. We picked up and delivered mail, and kept adding passengers (not knowing where to put them, they hung onto the back gate) and dropping them off along the way. The trip was truly an experience, which was made pleasant by the delightful company and shared astonishment and gripes. We arrived in Savan close to five hours later and found a wonderful hotel. We splurged, forgoing a grody $8 room for a seemingly palatial room with breakfast, AC and cable for $15 a night.

We spent two nights in Savan with the intermittent day one of walking the banks of the Mekong, eating wonderful street foods, visiting an amazing Temple built in the 16th century and speaking with one of the monks about his work as an English teacher.  We later went to the community market, had lunch there, and enjoyed the sights of market life in southern Laos with its live poultry, fresh fruits, clothing, jewelry and other market essentials.  

On Tuesday morning we got up early for the ten hour bus ride to Vientiane, the capital city of Laos.  It was a local bus, and we were treated to multiple stops in small villages, with food hawkers at each stop, and were treated to the rustic, yet lush rural landscapes of Laos.  

At our arrival in the capital city we joined a lovely man from Normandy, a fellow traveller,  and we searched for hotels together, finally settling on a family room here in a clean, but soulless hotel, the only spot we could find at a reasonable price.   It was $25, our most expensive room yet.  We will look for less expensive quarters later today, Wednesday, groundhog day in the US.  Here Phil will see his shadow, with a sunny 85 degrees planned.

Pictures here