The bus from Hanoi to Vientienne, the quickest way to get to Loas, except by air is a rather daunting 20 hours long. Almost enought to make you not want to go and has scared many people into going for the plane. But I will not fly, so I had to. And not only is it 20hrs long it is also one of the more interesting trips to make.
Starting the trip, I was off to a bad start. Saying goodbye to my mother was a little more painful than expected and the loneliness of travelling alone hit me hard under grey skies in Hanoi. The sun hadn't shoen since we arrived. I used the las few hours to surf the net and drink somw beer before being rushed on the back of a moto to take me a whole 200 meters to the minibus to take us out of town.
For some reason when the minibus arrived at the bus station, we were not allowed in and nor were we allowed to walk in. So we waited on the side of the road for another bus to come along, which we were hastily put in. The bus then drove into the bus station and we got off again to be transferred to our real bus. This should have been an indication of the things to come. Again we were hastily put on the bus werre we sat patiently for about 2hours before the bus finally departed. All the time more and more good were being laden on the bus; on the roof, under the seat and in the aisles. Luckily for me I had chosen the bad seat on the wheel so I retained my leg room and a spare seat for at least part of the trip. Finally the bus tooted it horn and we were on our way for what was termed a 'non stop' trip to Vientienne.
Well it turned out that the bus stops in every major city between Hanoi and Vientienne. This is more than you would think as due to geographic reasons the bus heads south along the vietnam coast for about 8hours before turning right to get into laos. And at each stop more people and cargo gets put onto the bus. I think I was fortunate that the bus I was on was not that busy for other people have described much worse situations. For us, while many had no leg room. There was only one person for each seat. By early morning we had passed the last major city and headed into the hills towards laos. By this stage people had starting leaving their seat and occupying the prime aisle real estate to get some rest.
We arrived at the border at about 5am were wearily we all got off the bus and wandered around (the crossign doesn't open till 7am). When we left we were driving in rice fields, now we were high in a mountain pass that served as the border crossing. Not a bad place to have a regular day job. We watched the immigration official consume their morning coffee before herding into the immigration office to have our passports stamped. In order to make thing go quicker one of the ladies on the bus collected all the Laos passport to make sure that they got done first. This was of course a waste of time becuase the bus still had to wait for us tourist who had to fend for ourselves in a line free zone. Things went a little smoother as us tourist opted for some collective action and one by one we had our exit from vietnam approved. A fact which not a single person regretted.
By this stage I had made a healthy friendship with Damon and Tanya and we proceeded across the border together. Expectation were high, as so many good things had been said about Laos. Now those that know me, know that I don't take symbols, or mystical thing to seriously. But it was very apparent to me that soon after we crossed the broder I could feel the weight being lifted off my shoulders and for the first time in a week or so the sun broke through the could an shone down on us as we walked through the mountain pass toward Laos.
The Lao immigration process was no less organised but less people made it more manageable. There were no sign as to what to do. Eventually we figured out to go to booth A to get the card, fill in card, go to booth B to pay the money and then go back to booth A to get your passport stamped. So all was well, and we even got an extra month on our visa which was very kind of them. After a short wait for the stragglers to cross the border we were back on the road for another 7hrs travelling.
THe bus descending down a twisting winding road, past rural villages that may never have seen a brick in theirs lives, along side meandering mountain streams. The view was mesmerising and seemed never ending as we turned left and right and left and right. I would have watched forever if I had not fallen asleep from weariness.
Eventually we arrive in the mekong valley where the roads and landscape become flat and travelling becomes faster. Now the lonely planet warns that buses in Lao tend to break down, but that didn't stop my surpise when BANG, the tyre right underneath my seat exploded. I could feel the explosion through the floor. The bus stopped safely and we got off the bus into the sweltering Lao heat. We all searched for what little bit of shade we could find as we waited aboutn 30min for them to replace the tyre. So in no time we were back on the road. The rest of the trip past uneventfully and before we knew it we arrived at Vientienne bus station almost 3hrs early. Early buses are not common in Asia.
Vientienne, the capital of Lao is possibly the most laid back capital city in the world. The tuk-tuk drivers will happily cruise at 15 to 20km per hour even though the roads are wide, clean and relatively empty. As a tourist your not generally in a rush anyway. Vientienne itself as a capital also has little to offer the tourist. It has a couple of Wat's as well as two national monuments, one gold call That Luang and the other an arc de triomph like structure that was built with money from the US but never finished to this day. So half of it is painted and the other half is plain concrete. What there is todo is watch sunset over the mekong and play football on the sands of the mekong, and after dark when all the bars and restaurants are closed you can go for a spot of bowling, which for some reason is the only place allowed to stay open after the 12pm curfew. We played two games of which I came a close third and fourth if I recall correctly.
I might digress here to some general information about Lao. It is no secret that economic development is occuring rapidly in South East Asia. I spite of this Laos and tome some extent cambodia lag behind the rest. Laos is I believe the poorest country in south east asia (bar Myanmar). This is potentially going to change quickly with dramatic effect on the country. Because sits at the 'crossroads' of the south east Asia economies and China. With China opening it borders in the 1990's Lao is now central to a project to create the 'ASEAN highway'. A series of roads that will connect southern China (Yunnan province) to Thailand and Vietnam to the Myanmar coast. thus creating more open a free trade throughout the region. Both these road will go through Laos, taking once remote regions into important trade links. The cynic in me suspects that China is supportive (and probably pushing) this because if roads are built connecting Yunnan to Myanmar, China will be able to transport goods further east and to Africa, bypassing the more western centric and controlled Malacca straights. These roads include roads between Thailand and Myanmar, and the whole project is strinkingly similar to what the Japanese were trying to achieve in the second world war which resulted in the 'death railway'.
This increase in trade through Lao will have positive economic effects, with the investment leading to large hydro electrcity projects mainly for export to Thailand, and other industries which can lead to jobs and better living standards. But also negative effects, with increases in illegal forestry and fauna exports to china, increased risk of prostitution becoming more wide spread (Lao, unlike Thailand has a law that say a foreigner is not allowed to have sex with a local until they are married) and more destruction of local ethnic communities. Some of this is necessary and inevitable, but with the limited capacity of the government and curroption the risks are there. What is best, I do not know. I do think that you can expect much change in Lao over the coming years if this project is completed.
With that I will leave you. Thanks for reading
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