From Vietnam to Laos

So, for some reason we've abandoned the blog for a few days. Might have been because of the sudden change in temperature (went from 15 degrees to 25!) or maybe we just had to mentally and physically recover from the 27 hour bus ride that took us from Hanoi to Luang Prabang, Laos.

On New years day we boarded the bus that was supposed to take roughly 24 hours and bring us over the mountains, across the border and in to Laos. After starting it all off by getting in and out of several different minibuses and finally being dropped of somewhere on the side of a busy highway with no instructions what so ever on what would happen next, we had a clue about how painful the upcoming 24 hours would be.

I must say the fact that we booked a sleeper bus (something we've never heard of before we got to Asia, it's pretty much a bus with beds instead of seats) made the whole thing much more endurable. Diana showed proof of incredible sleeping skills and managed to sleep about 23 hours (without even using valium pills). I could only pull off about 15, but was quite happy anyway. The rest of the time was spent reading (can't believe I managed to read in a bus that went up and down tiny mountain roads without getting travel sick ONCE!), eating Oreo cookies and glancing out the window to see the most spectacular views.

Not to bad at all, if it wouldn't have been for the lack of stops for food and toilets. We stopped to eat at 20.00 (one hour after departure), next time we stopped for food and toilet was at 14.30, the next day. It was rough, to say the least.

The mentality in Laos is much more laid back than busy Vietnam. We experienced this as early as at the border, where nobody seemed to be in a hurry (opening the office half an hour late, taking about one hour to stamp 12 passports etc) We arrived to the Laos border at about 7.00 in the morning and left with our visas sorted at 11.00. Neither of us had had any food for the last 11 hours which made us all very grumpy by the time the border staff finally announced that we were free to enter Laos.

In the end it was all worth it, Laos is amazing, especially Luang Prabang but that will be another blogpost.