So, a night earlier than expected, after innumerable buses, boats and motorbikes, we've made it to Hanoi! I slept in this morning, so Anna's ripped off Robin Williams and blogged pretty extensively about our adventures en route here. When we got to the bus station in Dien Bien Phu (34km from the border, the first sign of human existence since the frontier from which the guidebooks preposterously suggest you try to flag down a lift) we were planning to go to Son La/ San Lo, but there was an exhausting 10 hour bus yesterday to Hanoi - truly gruelling, Anna and I may well have been the only passenger not to vomit. But anyway, there's lots to catch up on...
We were planning to take another boat upriver to muang Khua but, given the exorbitant price the captain was demanding and the near-total lack of ATMs in eastern Laos, we adapted the plan with a boat back to Nong Khiaw and then a bus to Oudomxay - an dump built up around the province's sole cash machine. Anna almost missedthe bus from here to Muang Khua, as the driver decided to leave 45 minutes early, making him the only person in Laos not to be late by default.
According to the books (I'm going to stop writing this soon, as everyone I've met traveling is carrying the same LP begrudgingly and swearing about the errors), the bus to Vietnam leaves at 5am. It doesn't, at least not while Tet (Vietnamese New Year) is on, and it's nearly impossibly to find even when it does! Needless to say, LP doesn't give a map, or directions more detailed than 'across the river'. Which river? Where? There are two big rivers here! We started looking for it at 4.30am, thinking we'd be able to hitch when the sun came up. After 2kmin the dark, and several scary dogs, along what we thought was 'the road' we came up against a river where the Chinese migrant workers are yet to build the bridge. Or the road, for that matter. Back in town, learning that there were no buses in that direction until 3pm we had an 'incident' with a van full of French tourists, heading to Vietnam, that wouldn't let us sit in there spare seats. There was only one solution, and Anna dragged me back onto a motorbike .
That being said, the 60km ride was breathtaking! Anna's put it perfectly: "It was terrifying as the road was full of lumps and bumps, but the views as we climbed into the mountains in Phongsali province were breathtaking. We began in cold, dense mist, but as we got higher, we suddenly came through the mist into bright, warm, blue skies and it felt like we were at the coast with waves of fog below. Another highlight was overtaking the French in their van, which was struggling with the terrain!"
We said goodbye to the bikes at the Lao border, which was fine. Then we walked 5km with our backpacks, being passed by the French van, through no-man's-land to Vietnam. At first I thought it was genuinely sweet that the Vietnamese guards wouldn't let us walk towards Dien Bien Phu, insisting on calling us a taxi. We wanted to hitch (Crowded Planet said this wouldn't be a problem) but there wass not town, no traffic and "no space" in the French van. But a taxi was called, we were charged twice the going rate, and the nice kind guards took a 50% cut for making a phoen call to someone's brother. Dienh Bien Phu was pleasant enough, but closed, for Tet - it apparently ends today and life should return to Vietnamese commerce.
Yesterday was an entire day on the bus, listening to Vietnamese vomit repeatedly for 10 hours. After a shower, a good sleep at the Hanoi World Hostel and a kingsize pizza, this morning we're heading out to explore the Old Quarter, and the rest of Hanoi!
Speak soon, X