The scene at the bus station was of utter chaos as we left Kota Baru, with Kelantanese returning to various parts of the country after celebrating Hari Raya Haji (which is a big deal in Kelantan & Terengganu) in their kampungs. We managed to find our bus with some help – it turned out to be an specially commissioned tourist bus, rather than a regular bus belonging to the bus company. We were quite relieved they were not using school buses as replacement buses anymore!

Snatched a couple of hours of sleep here and there, as the bus wound it’s way through parts of Kelantan and entered Pahang before reaching KL at 4.30am. We’d been told we’d arrive around 5.30-6am, which would have been perfect for us to catch the Komuter train to Seremban.

The last and final bus of our journey

Made our way to the Komuter station, a 5-minute walk away from the bus station, only to find that the first train leaves for Seremban at 5.37am. Since it wasn’t going to be that long a wait, we decided to hang out at the station in the meantime, me trying to finish the last of my chick lit, and Daniel playing solitaire on his phone.

Waiting for the right train to arrive at the station

Our train arrived, and we hopped onto our last train of the journey for the relatively short 90-minute ride to Seremban. It was quite odd to be passing by all the familiar landmarks of KL – where we’d been living before we went to the UK last year – without having been in KL for more than an hour.

Train to Seremban arriving at the platform

We arrived at Seremban train station at 7.15am, and waited outside the station for Mama K to pick us up, getting a couple of pics in while we waited.

Seremban train station early in the morning

Finally, we’re home!

We were really exhausted after the entire journey, and the overnight bus ride, but so excited to finally be home! After a good shower and yummy thosai for breakfast, we had a nap and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening catching up with Papa & Mama K and Gweenie and Siva, who’d come back to Seremban just to see us! Oh, and Daniel managed to drop by at the barbers’ for a much-needed haircut and shave too!

New-look Daniel Rosien

However, there is still more to come on this blog although we have arrived…  drop by in a day or two and see…

The other person we get to meet is Anand, and old childhood acquaintance of Anushia’s (although they both didn’t seem to be quite sure of that) and a good friend of Uncle Nayagam. He invites us to go out with some of his friends later in the evening and we do not think twice at the temptation of some good Mamak food.

Anand picked us up a little later and we head out to the Mamak shop, where we meet some of his diving buddies from Germany, Korea and Canada and Kota Baru of course. We have a good time chatting and catching up on the latest news on Malaysia and the islands. It’s high time to go out and do some diving again! By the time we have had another drink at the new riverfront area it is time for a good rest and Anand drops us off at Uncle’s place.

Only the next morning, in daylight, do we realize at what beautiful place we are staying. We have breakfast on the veranda, which overlooks a little river and the rest of the garden with mango, mangosteen, ciku and passionfruit trees. The house is a real little oasis of calm at the edge of the jungle.

Good morning …

After filling out stomachs with a delicious meal of nasi lemak we head out to town with Uncle Nayagam and try to sort out our tickets for our last leg of travel to Seremban. Unfortunately, however, it looks that we will be stranded in Kota Baru for a little longer than originally planned. It is a holiday and all the train and bus tickets are sold out. The best option we have is a night bus to KL the day later, which lets us enjoy another day of Kelantanese Hospitality.

We meet up with Anand who takes us for a good Kopitiam (old Chinese Cofeeshop) Lunch before dropping us back at Uncle’s place, where we rest for the afternoon.

For Dinner we were invited to a treat at Ingrid’s place, where we meet up with the others from the Club. There’s a “Freistaat Bayern” Sign in the entrance area and pictures of Wunsiedel and the Fichtelgebirge around the house, making it feel kind of familiar. The dinner of Quiche and Gulasch with Pasta is delicious and the round up with Christmas cookies on the terrace under palm trees reminds us that its only a couple of days left until Christmas. We all chat long into the night and when we leave we are sad to have to turn down Ingrid’s invitation to come back for the Christmas dinner. We head back home with Uncle Nayagam and have a last beer sitting in the garden under the full moon.

Ending the day as it had started…

The next day starts with some gardening work just after breakfast – after all we have to earn our keep somehow. We help Uncle with getting the lawn back into shape, open some of the fallen coconuts for the chicken and take the overly excited dog for a walk around the garden. Half an hour later and we are sitting outside and having a beer. Anand drops by with a Kelantan specialty of Nasi Kerabu for lunch. As we still have the whole afternoon before our bus for KL leaves, he suggest going out to the beach. Although the beaches and the water are not all that nice during the monsoon season, there are still things you can do at the beach. Anand knows of someone who has set up a little surfing school at the beach and we decide to give it a try.

Teaching the chicken how to open their own coconuts

Taking out Fiver

We pick up Madeline, one of the dive buddies whom we met on our first evening in Kota Baru and take Yani, Uncle Nayagam’s helper, and head for the beach. The Surfing “school” is a little smaller than expected and there are only very few instructions from the young chap running the shop. Although the boards are not made for beginners we give it a try. The success is very limited and have difficulty getting two feet on the board and standing but it’s a lot of (exhausting) fun – spare the bruises on the leg and the occasional wack from the board swung against you by the waves.

First surfing attempts…

Then it is already time to think of leaving for our last bit of travelling and we head back via the market, where we pick up dinner. At Uncle Nayagam’s place we pack up, eat and say our goodbyes. It was a great time we had in Kota Baru and a really nice welcome to Malaysia with all the people we met there. [Thanks so much Uncle Nayagam and Anand, for having us and showing us around KB! We look forward to seeing you in KL sometime soon!]

Night market and full Moon in KB

Pulling out of Bangkok’s Station (after I got back in…)

Last View of the Chao Praya River and Bangkok in background

The ride itself was rather uneventful, but the train was very comfortable, and we had pretty scenery to look at during the daylight hours. Unfortunately, we had more daylight time than expected since the train only pulled in to Sungai Golok with four hours delay.

Scenery of Thailand’s south under Monsoon clouds

After walking for a little less than a kilometre we arrived at the border – the last border to cross on our journey. The Thai immigration was done in a couple of minutes and we walked across the bridge of the Golok River that was swollen from the monsoon rains of the last couple of days. Luckily the weather changed for the better just before we arrived and the floods receded.

Almost…

We walked under the giant “Selamat Datang ke Malaysia” sign and into the immigration complex. Anushia went through the electronic gate while I picked up the last stamp in my passport and we set foot into Malaysia.

…there

Kota Bahru, Anushia’s birthplace, was still an hour’s drive away, which we spent reflecting on the long journey here and wondering that it felt so sudden to be in Malaysia despite the three months we had spent on the road.

Looking back on where we’ve come from

When we arrived after a brief stint in a bit of a traffic jam it was already late in the afternoon. We found our way to the Royal Kelantan Country Club, where we were met by Uncle Nayagam, whose hospitality and company we were to enjoy while we staying in Kota Bahru.

Deprived  of a good morning coffee, we wobbled out of the train and into a taxi and headed for the Banglamphu area on the river front. We managed to find a nice place not far from infamous Khao San Road and dropped our bags off before heading out for our much-needed breakfast and coffee.
A shower and a short nap later, we were out on the road again. We only had a little more than 24 hours to explore Bangkok, which of course does not do justice to such a huge and diverse place. Although Bangkok is so close to Malaysia, Anushia had actually not been here before and enjoyed this bustling city quite a bit, and I had a great time re-discovering some of the sights and memories of my previous visits.

We started off with a walk to the Chao Praya river and took the boat from there to get a bit of an orientation. We passed some of the major sights, including the grand (former) Royal Palace and Wat Arun, which looks very much like the temples of Angkor Wat.

Looking at Wat Arun from the river

We got off at the last stop, somewhere close to a Skytrain station, and decided to walk around the area  a bit in search of food. It ended up being a very long walk, as we passed just one huge shopping mall and lots of closed shops along this main road. There were many stalls selling various kinds of street food, though, which Anushia could not keep her eyes off. A couple of samples later, she was more than happy to keep walking until we found a place to have lunch at. ☺
After a late lunch, we headed into the Chinatown area and just enjoyed walking around and watching daily life. We’d have loved to head on to explore Sukhumvit, however, the infamous Bangkok traffic jams were in full swing, so we had to be content with sitting by the roadside and watching life pass by for quite a while.
The ubiquitous tuk-tuks all over Bangkok

We could not resist the “allure” of Khao San road, and just had to have a walkabout to see for ourselves this famous backpacker zone. It was very lively and full of people, a complete contrast to the sleepy street we’d had breakfast at earlier in the day. We actually had quite an interesting time, just people watching and wandering into random shops along the road. We also ended up picking up a couple of DVDs to keep us entertained on the train ride the next day.

Khao San Road in full swing at night

We spent our last few hours in Bangkok exploring the Royal Palace, which used to be the residence of the King. Today, it is largely used for ceremonial events. It’s a huge complex, with lots of lots of ancillary buildings housing various objects of interest. We decided to focus on Wat Phra Kaew, home of the famous Jade Buddha. The wat complex itself consists of many little wats and chambers, most of which are closed to the public. These wats are all very prettily decorated on the outside – doors covered entirely with mother-of-pearl inlay, mosaics formed of ceramic pottery pieces and of course statues of various mythical creatures.
Wat Phra Kaew in the Royal Palace

Only the main temple, housing the Jade Buddha, was open to the public, and we joined a handful of locals worshipping the surprisingly small Buddha statue, made entirely out of jade. Apparently the statue undergoes a change of costume presided by the king three times a year – for summer, winter and the rainy season. This time it was in winter gear.
Walking back to our hotel in search of lunch, we witnessed a scene that truly depicts Bangkok – a monk and a goth waiting to withdraw cash from the ATM. Truly a picture of modernity and tradition, religiosity and “rebellion”.
Typical Bangkok scene

All too soon, it was time to leave Bangkok for Sungai Golok and the Malaysian border. Although excited to be entering our last country of the journey, we were also a bit sad to leave Bangkok so soon, and to be nearing the end of our long journey home. We agreed that we’d definitely return to Bangkok in the near future, and really do justice to this amazingly lively city of contrasts.

Our train to Sg Golok

Nong Khai station

Our train waiting at the station

When we entered our carriage, we felt like we were entering a sauna! As it was an air-conditioned car, all the windows had been sealed. Unfortunately, today of all days, there was a glitch with the electricity supply, and the A/C and lights were not working. It was steaming in there, so we had to wait on the platform while the technicians tried to fix the problem.

Waiting…

…still waiting

Departure time came and went but the problem was still not fixed. We got talking with our fellow passengers, who were part of a tour group from Bangkok. They were not pleased either. The annoying thing was that all the other carriages were fine, it was just ours that didn’t have electricity supply!

Getting dark, and still waiting

The train officials tried to offer various options, including seats in the Third Class carriage (all other seats were full) but our fellow passengers were well aware of their rights and very vocal. We decided to just leave it to them to sort things out…which was a smart thing to do, as after an hour of negotiation, they managed to convince the train guys to fully refund the price of our tickets and let us travel in the 1^st Class Carriage anyways. The refund was compensation for not having electricity for the entire 12-hour journey.

12 hours is nothing compared to some of the journeys we’d been making, so we were more than happy to get our money back, and quickly boarded the train. Daniel became a somewhat of a hero after he started using his Leatherman to unscrew all the windows open, allowing much-needed fresh air to circulate in the carriage. We were soon on our way through the little towns and villages of Thailand, headed to Bangkok…for free!!

All settled in, with just emergency lights and no A/C

Hence it was a bit of a surprise that the city seemed to be teeming with tourists the night we arrived from Luang Prabang after an 11-hour bus ride. We could not get a room at any of the hostels or guesthouses in town! Ended up choosing a nicer place (for a nicer price, of course) and got their last available room for the night.

We were rather tired after the long and bumpy journey – our Super-VIP bus was not all that comfortable, but at least neither Fred nor his relatives were in sight. The scenery was of course amazing, with beautiful green hills and valleys, grand limestone outcrops and pretty little villages along the way.

Scenery along the way

We’d decided to spend just one full day in Vientiane, so it was early to rise as we started our sightseeing activities. Turns out we needn’t have been in such a big rush, as there wasn’t all that much to see. We started off wandering around the major wats, trying to identify the architectural characteristics unique to Vientiane (largely to do with having a veranda adorned with wood carvings in front of the wat entrance).

Wats and more wats

Again, the wats seemed rather lifeless to us, with just a few shy young monks reading or chatting under the trees. Many of them seemed to be studying English, judging by the books they held, yet they seemed shy to strike up a conversation, and we weren’t sure if it was appropriate to initiate a chat either.

The one wat that we did enjoy more than the others was Wat Si Saket, the oldest wat in Vientiane. Although it’s badly in need of restoration, the wat has a nice air to it, and is also home to more than 8,000 Buddha statues. The bulk of these are tiny little figurines placed in little niches all along the walls surrounding the wat compound.

Wat Si Saket

A quick visit to the bus station to check on buses into Thailand for the next day led to us walking through Talat Sao, the biggest market in Vientiane. Although we only walked through a tiny bit, it was interesting to see all the colourful clothes and fabrics on display.

Colourful blouses at the market

We ended our sightseeing with a visit to Patuxai, which is said to be the Arc de Triomphe of Vientiane. Apparently it was built using cement donated by the US which was meant to be used for building the airport! From a distance it does look rather majestic , but up close, it’s very much a “concrete monstrosity” as the visitor information plaque states.

Patuxai – from a distance (the better view)

It was nice just to sit around the Chinese-donated musical fountain in the park surrounding Patuxai, just watching the locals having an evening out. We also discovered why all the hotels were full – there were tonnes of Thai tourists from across the border.

People around the fountain

We decided to splurge on dinner that night, for a good cause. We had an excellent meal at Makphet, a restaurant run by former street children and their teachers. All the profits from the restaurant go towards outreach projects to help street children in Laos. The restaurant itself was very prettily done up in green (Mama K would approve), and the food, especially the dessert was really yummy too!

Dinner at Makphet

The next morning, we had just a couple of hours to kill before leaving for the Thai border. We decided to visit Pha That Luang, the most important Buddhist monument in Laos. It is also the seat of the Supreme Patriarch of Lao Buddhism (sort of like the Lao Dalai Lama). Considering that we had to take a tuk-tuk about 4km out of town to get there, it wasn’t all that spectacular in comparison to all the others wats we’d seen so far.

Pha That Luang

After lunch it was time to head to the border, which we crossed on the Thai-Lao Friendship Bus. Border crossing into Nong Khai was uneventful, with no visa issues for anybody, thank goodness! There was only a EUR 0.25 fee to pay for crossing the Lao border on a weekend! Fair enough, the immigration guys need their share of BeerLao to make up for missing their Sunday at the local pub.

Crossing the Mekong again

The first road-sign we saw

As we don’t have all that much left of the day after sorting out our accommodation for the night, we decide to focus on just one attraction on our first evening in Luang Prabang: A Lao-style table barbeque. In this case, the barbeque pit is in the centre of the table and covered with what looks like an old hubcap. Then come the ingredients and instructions. The meat goes in the raised centre of the hubcap which is greased with strips of pork fat. The rim of the hubcap is flooded with the clear soup, which then is filled with the leaves, sprouts, carrots, noodles, cabbage and an egg. The juice and fat of the meat runs off into the soup and, with generous helpings of chopped garlic and a few squeezes of like, you end up with a really good broth and some very yummy meat. The dessert is built in, too: the strips of pork fat, left on the barbeque throughout the dinner become delicious pieces of crackling at the end of the meal. Unfortunately we were too busy enjoying the meal to take pictures, so you’re going to have to try it yourself when you go to Luang Prabang!

We really did very little on day two. But the nice thing is that Luang Prabang doesn’t even make you feel bad about it. We changed our guesthouse, as our first find was a little far from the centre and also got quite cold at night. Even though we already are in the South-East Asian tropics, it still gets quite cold in Northern Laos.

Rise and shining…after a freezing night in our first guesthouse

An orientation walk around Luang Prabang made us look forward to exploring this place a little deeper – venturing into the temples and little alleys full of old colonial houses. Our dinner on the Mekong riverbank with the sun setting somewhere behind the hills further down the river made a perfect end to this lazy day. 

Sunset over the Mekong

Our new guesthouse is located right next to the alley where the daily fresh food market sets up early in the morning. We start Day 3 right there, exploring all the amazing (and sometimes disgusting-looking) fare on offer. Two neat rows of stalls line the sides of the road, with mostly women vendors selling vegetables, fruit, freshly prepared and cooked food, clothes, and meat. The ‘meat’ stalls were the most interesting – there were quite a few exotic-looking creatures up for grabs. We identified quite a few Freds, something that looked like a dog’s thigh, various types of little rats and mice, frogs, iguana, little birds and even something that looked a little like a mousedeer!

Market…and mice for sale

We set off for a walking tour around the sights of this ex-kingdom town. Compared to the Buddhist temples we had been seeing in Tibet the temples here in Laos are quite different. In terms of architecture and features they are very similar to the Thai ones. The roofs have gilded tips and nagas protruding from every possible corner and the relief works above the entrances are decorated with disco-ball mirror pieces that glitter in the sun.  The other thing about the temples and monasteries in Luang Prabang is that they are very quiet and there are only very few local people visiting the temples. It is  a big contrast to the bustling Tibetan monasteries  we visited – even in the Chinese-controlled state they are in.

Temple-life in Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang-style temple architecture – tiered and pointy roof

Beautiful carvings on doors and windows

One of the few non-temple sights on the walking tour, the former palace, now housing a museum, is closed. It is National Day today (Dec 2). Considering that modern Laos was built on Marxist-Leninist ideology – visible even today in the hammer and sickle flag flow in tandem with the flag of Laos on every official building -  there is very little activity. There are no parades of the glorious workers’ associations or other revolutionary remnants.

We walk down to the other river in Luang Prabang, the Nam Khan , passing pretty colonial shoplots and riverside restaurants. Spotting an interesting-looking restaurant right by the river, we go through a little village trying to find it and end up having a looooonng lunch there – Daniel orders a Lao specialty of grilled fish, which, in turns out, takes more than an hour to prepare. It was an entertaining enough wait, though, as the restaurant seemed to be a popular outing spot for Lao families and groups of youngsters alike. We pass the time watching fishermen fishing in the river and cats trying to fish for leftovers from the tables.

View of the Nam Khan and the little restaurant in the background

By the time we were done with our lunch and a coffee afterwards, the nightly handicraft market was just setting up. We spent an enjoyable time walking through the market looking at the various sarongs, scarfs, shawls, lamps and handicraft on offer. All were so pretty and tempting, we had to exercise great restraint to not buy up the entire market!

Next morning, we had a fabulous breakfast at this nice little cafe, and visited a wat right next to it. Unlike most of the other wats, this wat was almost entirely red in colour, which made it a little bit less mundane. J Visited the Royal Palace Museum, which used to be the residence of Luang Prabang’s royal family. The museum also houses one of the most sacred Buddha statues in Laos, the Pha Bang, making it somewhat of a holy site. So I had to pull on my sarong to cover up my legs in accordance with Lao custom.

Sarong-ing it at the Palace Museum

After a quick drink at the riverside, we walked around town a bit more before making our way up Phu Si, the little hill that overlooks Luang Prabang and the confluence of the two rivers (Mekong and Nam Khan). We were not the only ones hoping for a good view of the sunset over the Mekong, though, as the entire summit was crawling with tourists and their cameras, all jostling for a good view.

View from Phu Si

Temple at dusk

As we were not all that hungry, we snacked on a roadside meal of spring rolls and pad thai before heading back to the hotel and trying to make progress on updating the blog.

Our plans for catching the bus to Vientiane the next day change fast as I wake up with yesterday’s spring rolls making an unexpected re-appearance. L The rest of day was quite uneventful, as  I was busy holding my upset stomach and giving (not so helpful) ideas for the blog entries, which Anushia was took the opportunity to catch up on.

By evening, I was feeling well enough to wander around town, and fill my stomach with some pasta. We also discover that Christmas comes early to Luang Prabang, and Santa is in a jolly good mood as he makes me jump while buying bread at the Scandinavian Bakery in town.

Santa in Luang Prabang

We headed out to the pier really early as we’d heard that the good seats get taken up really fast – so we had to be quite kiasu and grab some good seats early! We ended up being the first on the boat, and managed to get the “best of the worst” seats – we had a choice of hard wooden seats with minimal leg room, or soft seats right at the back in between the engine and the kitchen. We chose the hard seats right in front for maximum legroom, and managed to get some cushions to soften them a bit!

The boat started filling up around 9.30am, in time for departure at 11am. By 10am the boat was practically full, but more and more people kept getting on board. 11am came and went, but we were still waiting. It soon became apparent why – there was a huge group of people who’d just crossed the border from Thailand on a package trip, and they were supposed to get onto the boat.

We’d read about the boats being overloaded in the Lonely Planet, and were expecting that they’d try to do the same, so many of us from the boat protested, insisting that the boat was too packed for more passengers. However, the passengers on land did not demand hard enough for another boat, and once the first few started walking across the plank, the others followed suit and we soon had over 100 people packed into a boat meant to take 70!

Finally set off

Nonetheless the journey was rather enjoyable, with good weather all the way to Pak Beng, where we’d spend the night before boarding a similar boat to Luang Prabang. The boat ride itself was uneventful, with quite bland scenery along the way. We were expecting to see more life on the banks of the river, but there was not much happening apart from the occasional fisherman casting his net or a speedboat zooming by. I was quite surprised to see that the river was rather rocky in parts.

Rocky bits of the river

We got to talking with a Canadian guy, who was travelling with his wife and family – five children aged 6-16 years! We’d seen them crossing the border into Nepal at the same time as us in early November, so it was a lot of fun to exchange adventures up to the point we met again in Laos! They had been travelling through Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal, India and Thailand, and would be going on to Vietnam and Cambodia before returning to Canada in mid-January. Quite amazing, huh, to do such a huge and long trip with the entire family! Giving us ideas for another big trip already….though that will be a loooong time coming!

Apart from a couple of local people, the boat was filled to the brim with tourists, most of whom were young travellers on their typical gap year adventure. They seemed to be having a good time, chatting and laughing and consuming loads of BeerLao. I guess the alcohol helped make the journey more bearable, as it was rather boring outside.

Our fellow passengers

We arrived in Pak Beng just as the sun was setting, and rushed to find a guesthouse for the night. Just as I was confirming our room for the night, I was pleasantly surprised by a call from Jessica, Daniel’s sister. She was in KL on a stopover on her way back to Melbourne due to the Bangkok airport being shut down. Pity we weren’t there yet, else we could have seen her. Oh well, at least we’ll be meeting up in KL at Christmas, which is not too far away!

Had dinner and walked down the one street of Pak Beng before heading back to our guesthouse for an early night – we’d have to be at the boat by 6.30am to get good seats (super-kiasu, I know!). Next morning, we were greeted by swirls of mist over the river. It was very cold, but very beautiful too. Had a great breakfast of chocolate croissants overlooking the river before I headed on to the boat to grab good seats while Daniel finished off breakfast.

Breakfast at Pak Beng

The boat to Luang Prabang was infinitely nicer than the boat to Pak Beng. We managed to get good seats – soft seats with enough leg room for Daniel’s long legs. I was relieved to see that we were not the only kiasu couple – there were at least two other couples at the boat also with the same plan!

Soft seats to Luang Prabang, woohoo!!!

The journey to Luang Prabang featured more or less similar scenery to the previous day, although there was definitely more life on the river. The river is certainly an important mode of transportation and communication – children go to school by boat in some areas, and boats transport almost everything that the villages need, including rice and motorcycles!

Young fishermen

Transporting people, motorbikes and goods

About an hour away from Luang Prabang we were treated to a change in scenery as we approached the Pak Ou Caves, a limestone cave which houses a Buddhist temple. We passed by the caves and enjoyed the view of the limestone formations in the area, a nice change from the scenery of the past two days.

We arrived in Luang Prabang a bit more than seven hours after we’d finally set sail in the morning. It had been a long two days for us both, and we were quite tired, but we’d enjoyed the trip down the Mekong very much and were excited to finally be in Luang Prabang.

Huay Xai

When we tried to book our boat for the Mekong trip to Luang Prabang though, we had another visa drama which resulted in us spending an extra day in Huay Xai. The person we were booking the trip with checked our passports to ensure we had the appropriate visas (apparently the immigration check your passports when you board the boat) and discovered that Daniel was missing the one crucial stamp – the entry stamp which showed the port of entry and duration of his stay in Laos.

We discovered that Anika was also in the same position, as was an Australian girl who had crossed the border around the same time as us. Thus started a round of chaos as we went from office to office trying to get the entry stamp sorted. The Australian and New Zealand embassies advised the girls to just pay the fee as there was nothing else to be done. The immigration office at Huay Xai refused to help, stating that they’d have to pay a USD 100 fine to leave the country (they told the Aussie girl she’d have to pay USD 200 – obviously some kind of scam going on)! The Tourism Department in Huay Xai had no clue what to do, advising us to return to Boten and sort it out there instead, else we’d have to pay USD 100 per day that Daniel was in Laos without the entry visa! We really didn’t know who to believe and were so frustrated at the unfortunate turn of events.

We were so furious and disappointed that we considered leaving Laos then and there and travelling through Thailand before heading home to Malaysia. In the end, however, we decided to continue with our plan, but sort out the visa problem by having Daniel leave Laos via Huay Xai, paying the USD 100 fine, crossing the Mekong into Thailand and leaving again in a matter of minutes to re-enter Laos on a new visa. Once we decided this, we went over to the immigration officers and told them our plan, to which they said that Daniel could go and come back without any problem, and without paying the USD 100 fine! Maybe they were tired of dealing with all of us foreigners, or there was a lapse in their scam, for Daniel left the country without paying the fine and re-entered with a new visa!

Just as he was leaving the immigration counter, however, one of the “smarter” immigration guys suddenly realised that they’d been scammed by their own scam and demanded to see Daniel’s passport. He insisted that Daniel needed to pay the USD100 fine, but it was all invalid now, as they had crossed out the older visa and allowed him to leave the country and re-enter! After Daniel made quite some noise, they finally realised that they’d been defeated at their own game and let Daniel go.

Anika was then brave enough to cross the border (she was heading on to Chiang Mai), and we later heard that she’d had to pay the “fine,” although she managed to bargain them down to USD 80!

We were not too disappointed to have to spend an extra day at Huay Xai, though , as it’s quite a nice little town. Once all the visa drama was sorted, we spent a nice time walking around. Took a walk down to the Mekong to check out the boat that would be taking us down the river to Luang Prabang, and enjoyed the scenes of daily life around town once the big groups of tourists had crossed the border and moved on to their next destinations.

Boats by the river

Chatting at the bridge

Discovered that Laos is not without it’s amusing signboards either

We leave Kunming in the early morning and share the bus with what appears to be a whole bunch of new recruits for the Peoples Liberation Army. They are already dressed in their new uniforms and their young faces show excitement and worries of their time ahead.

Our fellow passengers

Outside the bus the landscape is changing fast and within a few hours we see lush, almost tropical scenery. The hills and valleys are beautifully green and again, almost every square inch is planted with something. We pass by groves of oranges and all the rest stops along the way feature women with baskets full of pomelos, pineapples, oranges and even dragon fruit. We’re definitely entering South East Asia.

Beautiful scenery along the way

Somewhere along the way we cross the highest bridge in the world (according to Chinese propaganda) over the Red River. Our journey ends with another river crossing – this time it’s the Mekong over into Jinghong, where we will spend the night. We’re excited to see this grand river, as the Mekong will accompany us (or maybe it’s the other way around) throughout our travels in Laos, which is still another five hours’ drive from Jinghong.

Crossing the Mekong at Jinghong

As we walk around in search of a place to spend the night we find that Jinghong has a fair bit of charm and already feels like it is not China anymore. Many signboards are written in Burmese and Chinese – after all, we are not far from the golden Triangle here. We have a good dinner (from a rather mundane menu, no blown up pigeons here) and a quiet night in anticipation of the 6am bus-ride to Mengla and onward to Mohan, at the Lao border.

The next morning, we find ourselves tumbling out of a minibus at Bus Station No 1 in Mengla with no clue as to where the bus to Mohan is. We connect with two other travellers, a Japanese guy and a Kiwi girl, and find our way to the No 2 Bus Station, from which we are able to get tickets for the minivan to the border. We bought some pau (steamed rolls) and were surprised at how cheap they were – until we discovered that they weren’t filled with anything! At least they filled our stomachs for the ride to the border, which was quiet and featured more of the same scenery of the previous day.

Our last view of China (hooray!!)

We’d been quite apprehensive about dealing with Chinese Immigration due to our Tibet permits. Although Tibet is supposed to be part of China, you are not issued a regular Chinese visa when you enter the country via Tibet. Our visa for travel in China was nothing more than a piece of paper in our passports, and the entry stamp was on that piece of paper, rather than in our passports, so if you look at our passports now, there is really no evidence that we were in Tibet or China!

Fortunately, we got through without too much hassle, after the immigration officers had taken a copy of our visas and returned the originals to us. Again, we held up the queue while they took their time looking through our passports and determining that we were legit. At least they were friendly for a change!

The four of us then boarded a tuk-tuk, backpacks and all, and headed into Laos. We were SOOOOOO happy to leave China, mainly because of the Tibet issue, but also because of the not-so-friendly people. Although we both agreed that we’d consider returning to China just to visit the Yunnan region which seems to be very beautiful and has some interesting culture.

We arrived at the Lao border, Boten, in 10 minutes. What a contrast it was to China. The immigration office consisted of a little building which could be accessed by just about anyone from any direction. We joined our respective lines (“Visa on Arrival” for Daniel and Anika, the Kiwi and “No Visa Required” for the Japanese guy and me). Daniel and Anika got through relatively fast, with about five different stamps in their passports. We were to find out the next day that they were still one stamp short, but that’s a another story!

We turned our watches back by one hour, sorted out our minivan to the next town, Luang Nam Tha, and had a delicious lunch of grilled meat and fish by the roadside. Our van driver was so nice and laidback, he just waited for the van to fill up and allowed us to finish our meal without letting us know that we were keeping about 8 other people waiting while we ate. We felt quite bad when we finally figured it out!

Finally we arrived at Luang Nam Tha Short Distance Bus Station (my name for it), from which we had to make our way to the Long Distance Bus Station (it’s real name) by tuk-tuk. We joined Anika in search of the bus to Huay Xai, and it took us a long time and multiple trips to the ticket counter to finally determine that we could board the public bus that was coming from Vientiane when it arrived, at “maybe 2, maybe 3 or 4.” The fact that the ticket selling staff was getting drunk on Rice Whiskey didn’t exactly help much.

Long Distance Bus Station at Luang Nam Tha

Decided to have a BeerLao at a lovely little restaurant across the road from the bus station while we waited, and of course the bus arrived before we could finish even half our drinks! Got our French fries to go and boarded the bus for the four hour journey to Huay Xai, where we would meet the Mekong again, for the 2-day boat trip to Luang Prabang.

The bus ride was definitely interesting. Apart from the beautiful scenery around us, we had some interesting fellow passengers, one of whom was a guy carrying a net bag with a live chicken in it. There were huge sacks of stuff all over the bus, so we had to climb over them to get to our seats. Just as we were about to leave, I noticed a creature under the seat in front of us…

It turned out to be a rat or mole of some sort, and it was someone’s pet (or their dinner?!), as it was tied to the bottom of the seat in front of us, looking very scared. Probably it knew that it was going to become someone’s dinner. I was very relieved that there was a doorway between us and Fred, as Daniel christened the poor little rat thingy.

Fred and his hiding place

Arrived at Huay Xai, which is also a border crossing between Thailand and Laos, late in the evening and had a good dinner with Anika before checking out options for the boat trip down the Mekong to Luang Prabang.