It was time to say Adios to Vietnam. Vietnam had brought us some great insight into their view on the war against American compared to the one most of us see on television and movies. It is a culturally beautiful country but the traffic and fumes eventually makes you want to escape it all. Our end couldn’t have come at a more perfect time.
Unfortunately the trip from Hanoi to the border was 12 hours. 12 hours on a bus! Bring out the iPods and the sleeping pillows. We have got an amazing group for sleep (myself included). This is the normal set up we go to bed and get 7 hours sleep then pile onto the bus and go straight back to sleep for another 3 or 4 hours. Sounds bizarre but this much travel can be draining as much as rewarding. The good point of the 12 hour journey was that it was full of spectacular scenery. The Vietnamese countryside offers a great contrast to that of the chaotic cities. We passed the time with the “I went to the shop” game. This game goes
· I went to the shop and bought an Apple
· I went to the shop and bought an Apple, Bazooka
· I went to the shop and bought an Apple, Bazooka, Cat
It went on and on and we eventually completed the whole alphabet. It was another success for team GAP and another 20 minutes off the 12 hours. The journey flew by and before we knew it, it was border time again.
Crossing the border was pretty straight forward this time we got stamped and boarded the bus to the Laos immigration station to get our visa. Twenty minutes later we were officially in Laos.
Not many people are familiar with Laos so I’m just going to give you all a quick 101 on Laos. It contains a population of 5.2million people. It’s largely been ignored by Westerns up until the country became a player in the Vietnamese war. However since late 1990’s Laos has decided to invite interest from the west by increasing tourism related activates. Laos has got a lot of French influence which is visible in its architecture. The 101 lesson is over.
We arrived in the village of Lac Sao. A very small town nestled in the mountains. You wouldn’t find this town in any of your guide books so it was a good way to see the real Laos. For the most part it’s an old fashioned country with a lot of culture which was visible in Lac Sao. We arrived just before sunset so got to view the sunset over the mountains from our balconies. It was pretty amazing to see this little village descend into darkness.
We all had a little time to relax before we would enjoy or first meal in Laos. The name of the place we were going was called “The only place in town”. This wasn’t a funny name it actually was the only place in town to eat. There was a clear difference between the Laos cuisine and the Vietnamese cuisine. I never like to order the same kind of food so this time I opted for the Tom Yum Chicken. It was like a chicken style soup. It was quite tasty. We all got to experience our first Beer Lao. Beer Lao is the only Beer in this country so it’s a bit of an icon. After 23 years I have finally acquired a bit of a taste for the stuff. Well it’s more bearable let’s say (That means cheaper).
Some of us headed home early to watch a movie on Star Movies. The movie was called “Severance”. I’m not going to turn the article into a critic’s review of the movie but I will saw it was awful. It was time for bed as another day of travel was to follow.
Oh the life of a traveller,
Conor
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