The bus to Dien Bien Phu was mentally more comfortable than the previous one, but physically less so, as the crew (these private mini-buses, somehow working in conjunction with the state, usually have a driver, a guy who sorts out payments (individual negotiations, of course, not a fixed price!), and possible one other to help with loading stuff on and off the vehicle (they also act as a courier service)) managed to fit about thirty people into what I think was something like a sixteen seater! On top of this squeeze, the woman in the seat directly and slightly above me split her time between wretching and vomiting into a plastic bag and falling asleep in a forwards direction, i.e. over the back of my seat, therefore forcing me in turn to adopt an awkwardly forwards leaning posture. So we were very pleased when the bus arrived in Dien Bien (actually, I say "we", but Paula, with her shorter legs and a non-wretching, non-forwards-sleeping person behind her, said the ride was fine)!

We stayed in Dien Bien fro a day before moving on again, as we were tired from two consecutive days travelling. I looked into this, actually, as I've often wondered whey sitting still all day can be so tiring, and I found the answer (skip the rest of the paragraph now if science bores you)! Apparently, the answer is one of resistance. Imagine if a vehicle suddenly veers left; you'll use your arms, legs and stomach muscles to stay centred. However, it doesn't have to be sudden or exaggerated movements. In actual fact, your body is subconsciously resisting the movement of the vehicle all the time, in order to retain balance. Additionally, you're also resisting the vehicle's movements mentally. If you ever lie down after a full day travelling and still feel like you're moving, it's because your brain hasn't stopped resisting the movements of the journey. So, there you go, constant physical and mental resistance is what makes travelling so tiring! Now where was I?...

Accommodation in Dien Bien wasn't our finest success. On the night we arrived, we walked for almost an hour, twenty kilo plus bags on our backs, to find no hotel at the address I'd written down, and then despite very reasonable rates (some would say dirt cheap!) of £6 then £5 respectively per room in the two guesthouses we stayed in (having sought an improvement after the first night), we were introduced to the unpleasant Vietnamese practice of not supplying fresh bedsheets! And there's just something about the smell of someone else's sweaty head on your pillow and the discovery of hairs on the sheets that belong neither to yourself nor any other human head that prevents you from fully relaxing!

Other than manky rooms, the other memorable aspects of Dien Bien were history, badminton and Liverpool beating Chelsea 2-0. I didn't actually manage to watch the game, or even see the result directly, but I was sure enough to celebrate after I caught a snapshot of the Premiership table on TV, showing the Mighty Reds on fifteen points, three more than the last time I'd looked! I think even Paula was pleased (for me)!

History-wise, Dien Bien was the location of Vietnam's decisive victory against the French in 1954, putting an end to colonialisation, and there are various significant sites around the town: bunkers, bridges, tunnels and battlegrounds. Not as interesting as the Vietnam War (or "American War" as they call it here) everyone knows about thanks to Platoon, Good Morning Vietnam, Apocalypse Now, etc, but interesting enough to earn a day of our time!

And badminton, of the open air variety, appears to be the local sport of choice in Dien Bien! One of my regular sports back home in England, of course, so I stopped a couple of times to assess the local talent. And I was impressed (not that I saw any pairings that'd trouble me and Dave, mind you)! I'm still kicking myself, though, for my automatic reaction to decline a go when one guy offered me a racquet, almost certainly spurning a unique opportunity to play during our travels (even if it would have been in jeans and sandals)...

The next leg of our "loop" was all the way to better known Sapa, via Muong Lay (previously called Lai Chau, but subject to a name change due to its imminent new location underwater, as soon as the massive dam above the Song Da reservoir is completed), and the new Lai Chau (previously called Tom Duong, but now upgraded!). I think this was the hairiest bus ride I've ever experienced! Usually, despite the recklessness of the driving, I find that I can sit fairly comfortably with the thought that the driver knows the roads. But this sparkly-eyed, grinning maniac definitely didn't, as half of them hadn't even finished being built! The construction of the new dam obviously required construction of new roads, higher up the sides of the valley, and our idiot driver was tearing along soon-to-be-roads but currently still dirt tracks, weaving in and out of bulldozers, swinging around cliffside bends as yet without barriers, and constantly stopping, turning around and having to find new routes where the roads he was obviously familiar with from the last time he'd made the trip had been closed off. How the vehicle survived, nevermind its passengers, I'll never know, as hitting unfinished, bumpy, rock-covered roads at top speed can't be good for the suspension (or it's ability to actually stay on the "road" at all). But we made it in one piece, so all is forgiven!