6p BEERS & A KEBAB

02/10/07 - 05/10/07 - Central Stars Hotel $8 p/rm w/breakfast

Arrived at a bus station outside the main town and at the An Phu guys instruction got in a free taxi and headed to his recommended hotel. Thought this might be a bad idea and was sure we'd end up paying for the taxi and getting ripped off, but as it turned out the An Phu Hotel was (for once) in a great location and pretty resonably priced... so after shopping around a bit we did end up staying there.

Went to a really overpriced aussie restaurant and ate some bad food. Went for a walk down to the lake, which was nice and the main market, which was pretty unimpressive then tried to book a trip to Halong Bay, but it was cancelled due to weather (typhoon!).

Day 2 was slightly more productive, booked our trip to Halong Bay and the bus journey to our next destination Lao PDR. Went for lunh at another highly recommended cheap eatery, King cafe, Luong ngoc Quyen Str, Hoan Kiem District and then went shopping. I bought a couple of bags and then we spent a while trying to decide if they were knock-off or not, they were really cheap considering the makes north face and eastpack, but then we figured that they might just be made over here anyway?!?

Went to see the water puppet show, which I had really been looking forward to and it was hilarious. I hadn't seen any pics so expected quite fancy puppets with jointed arms and legs and stuff, so when the first puppet came out with only its arms legs and head wiggling a bit, then running around in the fashion of the Team Amerca:World Police distress signal (if you haven't seen... it's hilarious) I was in stitches. But, the accompanying music is really good and the other puppets, dragons that breathe fire (fireworks and smoke), birds and groups of dancing people were really good. There was another funny scene where two birds (that's of the feathered variety) sort of ran at each other then wriggled under water for a bit before an egg popped up, that we also found particularly funny!

After the water puppets we bumped into Bjorn who we had met on the bus to Hanoi and went for some 2000dong beers (that's about 6p a beer) at a streetside bar where you sit on the street on kiddy size picnic chairs... rock and roll.

The next morning we checked out our hotel and set off for our long awaited Halong Bay trip... which had been cancelled... again, due to the typhoon. As Patrick and Gilles had been in Hanoi the week before and their trip had also been cancelled we decided not to wait around and brought forward our 20hr bus journey to Vientiane in Lao.

Spent the rest of the day shopping (in my case for dwarf-sized silk sleeping bags - good job I'm only small!) and just generally checking out the scenery. Before getting on the bus we stocked up with snacks then headed for our last 2000 dong beer and a kebab that even someone who doesn't (should that be didn't?) eat meat could enjoy... yum!

Whilst on the internet in Hanoi, Mel had read all sorts of horror stories about the bus journey to Lao, from people being abondoned at the border to rickety broken down buses, to non-existent buses... the list was endless! So, unsure if we would ever be heard of again, we had taken a gamble by booking with the nice lady at Hai Lan travel (Ngoc Minh Hotel, Luong Ngoc Quyen Street). Luckily our gamble paid off and we had a pretty good journey all things considered.

We got to the hotel to cath the bus at 5.45 as instructed, having been told that it left at 6.30, the taxi arrived at the hotel at 6.15 (with nowhere near enough time to get the station) and 7 of us were crammed inside with our luggage on our knees. Got to the bu station at 6.45, but it turns otut that that was fine as the bus didn't actually set off til around 8pm. The drivers were Lao... a very laid back set of people!).

Before we set off an Abba Karaoke video came on at full blast, which me and Mel found hilarious and sang along to every song (except one about a love boomerang or something I'd never heard). Although I've got to admit it felt a bit like a horror film and we'd all be killed to the sounds of Abba... luckily not!

After Abba we had Boney M and then some young male Lao artists singing love songs (I think?). It was an interesting journey as they left the door wide open rather than using the air con and we must've stopped loads of times for repairs. But the seats were pretty comfy and the trip across the border (which we'd been warned could take hours) was hassle free.

At the actual imigration booths it was a free for all as Lao don't have queues, but the walk through the no-mans land between the two borders was really peaceful and tropical.

The scenery as you approach and once you enter Lao is beautiful with its windy roads and knife-edge turns through chasms and misty mountain planes. Overall the journey was 20hrs of driving, but the guys were pleasant and the scenery was gorgeous. A 20hr journey is never going to be fun, but compared to some of the stories we heard I reckon ours was pretty darn smooth!