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Holy cow, we're in Laos!
After all the time and effort getting into China and the bureaucracy registering our vehicles when we were there, getting out was very straightforward – it was as if they couldn’t wait to see the back of us! No customs, no vehicle inspection, we just drove out and into Laos. Here we said a fond farewell to The Sprinter Crew, Richard, Lawrence and PooChian, who were heading west to Northern Thailand. We and Rob (in the LandRover) were heading south, so agreed to keep together.
Loas is beautiful. Basically the same environment as South China, but rather than being continuous tea, banana or rubber plantations, here it’s still natural green jungle interspersed with villages of wooden shacks on stilts. Huge palms, thousands of butterflies and it’s warm and humid. It’s coming to the end of the monsoon season but we’ve still had the afternoon/evening downpours.
The road from China was fine for 100kms, thanks to Chinese investment, but then it just turned into a wet mud track through the jungle and the next 100kms took us 8 hours. It was good to have two vehicles together as some of the conditions were bad. Seeing trucks skidding about and fitting tyre-chains to get through the mud was a bit daunting.
We made such slow progress and due to failing light, we had no choice but to wild-camp in the jungle next to some nice bloke’s wooden shack. We were a bit nervous at first as he had a big machete in his hands, but then we soon realised everyone seems to carry a knife as they walk about picking food from the jungle. We slept for about 12 hours as it gets dark at 6.30pm, lulled to sleep by the cacophony of insects, birds and God-knows what else! We were awoken at first light as the trucks started to use the road again, blowing their air horns on the blind bends. Then the shack owner put on some really loud music, which we took as our signal to leave!
Buying supplies from jungle roadside stalls comes with its own risks. We picked up a bottle of Pepsi which came with a free massive spider, it reared up its abdomen and sprayed fluid at us. Caroline ran away and Bry yelped like a girl and dropped the bottle as the spider ran for his hand. The shop owner stamped on the spider, but it still ran off on its remaining 6 legs.
We’re now in Luang Prabang, a backpackers’ haven on a peninsular in the Mekong with a heavy colonial French influence. You can buy baguettes, crepes and croissants from street sellers, alongside chicken heads, chicken feet and sticky rice. It’s very chilled and a welcome relief from the stresses and strains of China – we’re planning on staying here for 4 nights. There’s loads of Westerners around, so it’s nice just to blend in and do our own thing – although we are tempted to get t-shirts made up that say “Actually, we drove here”!
We’re staying in a nice little hotel just outside the main part of town, as it’s got a decent car park. The only drawback with this is that to get to town we have to walk over a rickety old bridge about 200 metres long, made up of wooden planks that you can see through to the Mekong flowing a hundred feet below. Bry’s not great with heights when he doesn’t feel safe, and this bridge definitely doesn’t feel safe! Even the locals have put signs up asking the town to repair it.
After having some downtime here, we plan to continue south to Vang Vieng, onto the capital Vientiane and then into Thailand. We can stay here up to a month, but probably won’t be more than 2 weeks, but we will see how it goes. It’s nice to be able to make these decisions again!
Finally, we’d like to say Congratulations to cousin Simon and Danielle on the birth of their first child, Barnaby! We’re really looking forward to seeing you three at Christmas!
TTFN