Journey in Vietnam finished! So how could we get to Laos if not by bus? The ultimate experience…

We started in Sapa at 7 pm when we boarded on a sleeper bus. It was not without screaming and fighting that we left this country (apparently you cannot really survive here otherwise). When we arrived, I went straight to one of the free “beds” downstairs as they are more comfortable than the ones up. As soon as I touched that bed, one of the Vietnamese drivers came and started to pull my bag and to scream at me: “Move up, up….!” I insisted that I wanted that bed, he kept on pulling my bag and my clothes. The Bear also arrived and the fight continued until the driver finally gave up and let us stay in that bed. You might wonder what that was for: he was just keeping the good places for his Vietnamese friends that were grouped around the beds at the back of the bus and we could see that all tourists were upstairs and all Vietnamese downstairs (1 Vietnamese per bed when the beds are normally for 2 people).

The road was quite fine and we managed to sleep a little bit, even if the Bear didn’t have enough space for his legs. The bus stopped in Dien Bien Phu at 4.30 am when we had to wait for almost 3 hours before continuing the drive with another bus – this time a small van, quite full with locals and carrying all luggage on the top. We had noodles soup for breakfast at 6 am.

It was at the time of Vietnam border crossing when we understood the level of corruption in this country: all Vietnamese people put 10 000 dong in their passport for the control; the security guy opened passport, took money out, put it under the table, stamped and gave the passport back. Neeext!!! And it happened in front of everyone else! It was the standard process that we tourists broke (no money inside).

Even our van driver was corrupt. He was smuggling Red Bull and coke from Vietnam to Laos.

However, Laos border was even worse, ripping off everyone who wanted to enter the country. We went to the first counter, filled in 2 forms, paid 30 USD visa tax each and waited. After a while they called us through another window of the same counter and asked for 2 USD each – “stamp control”. We took the passports and walked 2 m before we reached a new counter – 1 USD each for visa control. OK! No, it was not over! 1 USD each for “temperature check” before the final check (free)…

We were in Laos, tired and hungry and with half of the way still ahead. But driving through the beautiful mountains, on very good empty roads was quite nice. Laos is beautiful, clean, quiet and contradictory: even though considered the poorest country in South-East Asia, we could see new, amazing villas with golden gates and expensive cars in the courtyard in the middle of the countryside…

We finally arrived in Luang Prabang around 8.30 pm and had to walk 1.5 km from the bus parking to our hostel. Tired, but happy: new country, new people, new experiences await us!!!