Day 85

Vietnam > Laos

Unsure what was happening, eventually someone told us that we needed to change bus. This was what I expected at this was meant to be the "good" part of the journey and now we had to go on a local bus. We went to get our luggage from under the bus which I wasn't sure if mine had even made it on board as we were told to get on the bus before they had figured out how to fit our bags in around the whole motorbike stuffed underneath.

Luckily, mine was all there and we threw our stuff onto the local bus where it was only us as tourists left. This meant that it was actually fairly comfortable as we all had space to exist. That being said it was still early hours in the morning and we weren't going straight on with our journey as we assumedly had more people to pick up before going across the border. We drove around the town a little bit, only picking up packages before arriving at a bus station around 4.30am. In my head, I had heard someone say that the bus leaves Dien Bien around 5.30am so I didn't think we had too long to wait. We helped our driver strap our bags to the roof which didn't bode well for the amount of passengers due to get on, then we sat outside for a while. About 30 minutes later we asked our driver how long it would be and he said 7am which was much longer than my 5.30 estimate.

We all headed inside, and as a little group of 5 we sat round a table in the restaurant and played a few games of Uno to pass the time. I ended up getting a drink and a bowl of Pho for breakfast which ended up being my actual last meal of Vietnam and also happened to be the blandest. Eventually the sun rose and we watched a bright ball of fiery red appear above the horizon. I knew I didn't have a long journey after the border but felt terrible for the people who were not even halfway. We ended up leaving about 30 minutes early and headed to the border with a still relatively empty bus - much more comfortable than the sleeper.

We had to get off to be stamped out of Vietnam - luckily they allowed me to exchange my Dong into Kip which was super useful. We then had to hop back on for another kilometer or 2 before being stamped into Laos. I heard that this could sometimes take ages with no one being about but we must have been lucky. We did have to fill out an entry form (which the guy proceeded to not look at in the slightest) before being stamped in but it was pretty easy. Back on the bus now and we head towards Muang Khua, picking up people on the way. I was super tired so kept falling in and out of sleep but eventually the call for Muang Khua was made and I hopped off, wishing those with another day of travelling good luck.

I had no signal but I had learnt my lesson and downloaded the map, as well as Lao on Google Translate. I didn't know if I was going to be able to get a boat today but I walked along the main road towards where the boat would be. Luckily, on the way was a phone shop where for £10 I was able to get a SIM with 70GB of data for a month. A bit overkill for my 2 weeks but it wasn't much to pay and makes me feel better about being solo. I asked what time the boat was and they pointed me towards the dock so I made my way. I was told 9.30am tomorrow morning which I didn't mind so walked to the only accommodation I could find on Booking.com and checked into a room.

It was only 11am but first things first is I needed a shower and to brush my teeth. After that was taken care of, I laid in bed for a while before gathering the energy to head out. I gave my brand new sun hoodie a spin and went to find some Iunch. The place opposite was apparently closed so I thought I'd walk to the other end of town to get a feel for the place. This was definitely a local place with not alot of tourists so I got some funny looks, but with some basic Lao (hello and thankyou) learnt, I found a restaurant that seemed open. I asked if they had food and after a long drawn out conversation on Google Translate where they said they didn't have foreign food and didn't have a menu, I eventually got her to recommend me some stir fry rice and I obliged.

After enjoying my meal, I paid and headed back to the hotel. The Laos currency is strange because their biggest note is 100,000 (less than £4) which I think is because they suffer from such high inflation. I think because of this they've had to print alot more 100,000 notes which means that I have 2 different kinds that don't look similar or even the same colour or size - which makes it pretty confusing. Once I made it back, I pretty much instantly fell asleep even though it was only late afternoon.

P.S. Uploading 5 posts in 1 day is definitely a personal record, for the first time in ages I'm fully caught up!Читать далее