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Well we made it in time and they didn't muck about they were straight off towards Vientaine (Laos)…… or were we!!! We suddenly realised that we hadn't checked with the driver or any of the people pointing us in the correct direction that this bus was going to Vientaine (Laos), for all we knew we could be on our way to China……. But then again China did sound pretty cool so in the end we just went with it.
Rachel had 2 major worry's, first "that there was no where to wash and she would smell" and second "would they stop for the toilet enough", she didn't have to worry about either. Firstly there was a free shower on board, although it was only available at certain points of the journey, strangely these points coincided with when it was raining. However it was very impressive as it came straight out of the air con vent so we didn't need to even move from our beds, plus it was a yellowie colour so I assume it had free shower gel mixed in. As for the toilet breaks it stopped lots of times, although on occasions I had to wake Rachel up to tell her we were at a toilet stop, she was so tired when we got of the coach she didn't even spot where the toilet was. She asked, "where's the toilet", I was very helpful and led her across the road and pointed to various green bushes for her to pick from. So she didn't need to worry about either of those things.
When we first got on the bus the driver took our big bags and hid them down the front so that he could take good care of them for us. We were also asked to take our shoes off and given a nice bag to put them in, which was great as it stopped people dragging mud on. Also at stops they had a basket of blue slip on shoes we could wear so that we didn't get our shoes dirty which was great. We also had a blanket and pillow to use which was great for keeping comfy and stopping us getting wet if we didn't fancy the free shower.
We thought we were very unlucky at first, as there were only about 4 other people on the bus so it wasn't very lively. We decided to spread out a bit to make it look busier. However after quarter of an hour we stopped and picked up so more people and then a quarter of an hour latter we picked up some more. Before we knew it the bus was very lively with people in every seat and some sleeping on the floor. I was tempted to switch with someone on the floor as that was fully horizontal, where as the chairs only went to about 160 degrease. However I didn't want to have a stranger sleeping next to Rachel. So we drove off again with a full bus with only 2 people who could speak English……. Yep me and Rachel.
We then stopped to pick up some goods for delivery; first came sacks of things, which I assume were drugs as someone on the bus kept tearing them open to have a look. Then came boxes of items, I assume firearms, as the guy didn't open these, presumably to stop anyone freaking out. This explained why the bus was so cheap. Finally came a load of furniture that they strapped to the roof, presumably this was stolen goods they were trying to get out of the country. Thankfully we walked across the border control so had no connection to the bus at that point.
We then drove along the bumpy roads of Vietnam towards the Laos border (we hoped). After running through the rest of the South East Asia Plan again, playing a few games like find the thimble (thanks Martin and Sophie), having a few toilet stops and a few free showers from the sealing, we finally arrived at the border around 5:30ish, 11 hours after set off. Strangely Rachel slept pretty much the whole journey and I got about an hour sleep. Guess she was more relaxed after realising she had free showers and plenty of toilet opportunities. The bus stopped and waited at the border with other buses, trucks and cars as it wasn't open yet. I waited for 15 minutes then got bored so slide past sleeping Rachel and went outside to stretch me legs.
We were in the mountains and it looked beautiful, I walked over to one side to take a photo, then had to wait while some guy finished making his own waterfall. I was just about to take the photo when some other guy decided he wanted to make his own waterfall too. After the third guy I quickly rushed over taking the opportunity to kill 2 birds with 1 stone and got a picture along with other stuff.
I wondered around for a while, having a look in the restaurant and deciding I didn't want rice or noodles at that time in the morning and watching the border security people come down for breakfast and beer. I wondered in and out of all the people waiting for the border to open. A few of which spoke to me, as the only non Asian up there I had no idea what they were saying but assume they were asking what such a handsome westerner was doing up there, I just gave them a cheeky smile back. One guy must have been trying to tell me a joke as him and his friends laughed after whatever he was saying to me.
Finally some guy from our bus came up to me and told me I needed to go get me passport stamped. I quickly woke Rachel up who looked shocked and confused about where she was. We got of the bus and headed towards the border control leaving our day bags with all our important stuff on the bus for the kind bus driver to look after!!!!!!
We headed up to the Border Control Out office and waited there for 15 minutes for it to open and met some Italian guys. One had been to Laos before and said he wasn't staying long in Vientaine as he felt it was very corrupt, but said we should enjoy it as its our first time there, so that was good news to hear. The office finally opened and they took our passport and asked for the $1 bribe to process it and after 5 minutes of them laughing at how good we looked in our photo's in comparison to how we looked now they stamped them and waved us on.
We then tried heading back to the bus but got waved to carry on walking the other way. This was possible the scariest part of the whole trip as the Italian guy had said some borders can be 10 miles apart, ahhhhh exercise. We walked for a few minutes then reached another security gate where we stood round with the Italians for a while not having a clue what to do. Finally a kind civilian told us just to barge past all the locals and hand our passports over, which we did and we were waved through quickly. Finally out of Vietnam in no mans land.
We then had a 15-minute walk towards the Laos check in point so not too bad. Half way along Rachel explained to me that she had left her passport photos on the bus. We then spent the rest of the walk with our fingers crossed that there would be a camera at the check point (even though neither of us had any Laos money at this point so not a lot of good that would have done). Thankfully just before getting there our bus pulled up and Rachel jumped on and grabbed them along with our day bags which the driver had kept safe.
We got to the check in filled out a few forms, hoping that the guy wouldn't check that we were staying in the Guesthouse we had said, as we hadn't booked anywhere yet. Thankfully he didn't and we went on to the next desk to join one of the Italian guys who had been waiting there patiently for about 5 minutes. At which point we were told we didn't have to wait there, the Italian guy asked if he did and they said no, so he didn't have to bother waiting. We then walked out of the building and had another guy double check our passports and then we were through into Laos, yippee, easy.
We then had to wait for our bus to get through, and keep our fingers crossed that it hadn't already got through and left. Then a 3 people started talking to us and we thought they recognised us from the bus. A red bus drove by and parked further down the road and they started waving us towards it, I was pretty sure our bus was blue, but on the off chance they had decided to paint it while they were waiting to get through the border we wondered down. The other 3 got on the bus and the driver shuck his head at us. Guess they just wanted some sexy westerners to ride alongside them. We then headed back a bit towards a guy in a green Calvin Klien T-shirt who I new was on our bus. The bus finally arrived and we all climbed on.
We then were on the bumpy, twisty roads of Laos. I tried getting some sleep but the landscape was so amazing I found it difficult to look away. There was acre's of forests with sharp jagged mountains sticking out, and little villages with people going about their daily routine, this made the bus ride well worth while. The majority of which Rachel missed as she was back fast asleep again. We stopped at a few places to water the trees and bushes along the way. We then arrived at a house and they started unloading the drugs, firearms and stolen goods, I missed them exchange the money but sure it must have happened. Thankfully I didn't see my yellow Rucksack enter the house.
We then carried on and stopped again at 15:30, everyone started getting off the bus and we looked very confused wondering where we were. Finally the bus driver told us we had arrived and our amazing experience was over. I was very disappointed and have considered writing a letter of complaint as the bus journey was only 21 hours, that's 3 hours short, which I make it they owe 12.5% of my money back as I did not get the full allocated time.
- comments
Dave Redwood Sounds great fun guys but we need a bit of excitement here, Its never gone make the big screen. Throw in a few drug raids and wrestling with a local preditor and I might finance the movie. I;m looking forward to the next episode. Take care.