Slow Boat to China

Hello again,
Well, its been quite some time since we last updated this website so where do I begin. After Vang Vieng we continued on our way through Laos up to Luang Prabang, which has been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, but I'll get to that in a minute.

The drive from Vang Vieng is truly beautiful, but what a rollercoaster! A few people were green in the face by the time we finally made it to Luang Prabang 6 hours outside Vang Vieng. On the good side the drive took us up into the Laos mountains, we passed beautiful scenary, and small villages precariously hanging on steep hillsides. On the bad side, we were in a crowded minibus going far too fast over roads far too narrow. There wasn't a straight enough section the entire way for you to pull out your wedgy before the next corner flung you into the window or passenger next to you. Our driver had to dodge everything from huge 50 seater buses that took up the whole road to pigs and chickens (one poor chicken sadly lost its life). Unfortunately we did witness two accidents, no suprise considering the conditions, not to worry though, nobody was seriously hurt, I think.


Ouch, Thats a truck that T-Boned a Bus.

Luang Prabang is definitely worthy of its World Heritage Site title, we had 5 days there to explore. We went to temples, freed some birds (seriously), swam in waterfalls, kayaked down the Nom Kham river and basically enjoyed ourselves. Check it out.


The crowd from Luang Prabang, Look Mom, we didn't forget Moose! Along with Kendra is Paulien (Holland) on the left and Christina (Sweden) on the right. Thanks for the fun and the memories (Christina travelled with us the whole time we were in Laos, as I so eloquently put it one night, "Christina, your the longest person we've ever travelled with."....


Luang Prabang Royal Palace Museum with the Mekong River in the background.


One of the many Buddhist temples throughout the city.


Kendra and I exploring the Nom Khan river on Kayak.

The only unfortunate incident occured while we were cycling around the city, one of the girls we were with had her bag snatched from her by some guys on a motorbike, luckily for all, we were able to get it back, but it put a damper on our feelings on Laos. That didn't last long though as the following day someone returned our camera that "Yours Truly" forgot at a small store, and later we were all spontaneosly invited to a small outdoor block party by a group of friendly Laos people. We still love Laos.

Last week we got a comment from an anonymous person (Dave D.) who mentioned that he wanted to hear about some of the boring stories of travelling such as bus rides and weird occurances. After reading that comment I wasn't sure that we had anything that would fit the bill, however, Dave must have set off a chain reaction because since then we've had three straight days of "boring" events.

It started with our own personal "Slow boat to China". We left Luang Prabang for our two day journey to China on Sunday. We booked a slow boat (its actually called that) to take us to a small town called Nong Khiaw in Laos. Buses are quicker but the slow boat was supposed to include breathtaking scenary and we couldn't pass it up. It did not disapoint, it was amazing. However, because its the dry season the river wasn't exactly deep and our boat bottomed out on some rocks damaging the propeller as it did. We had to push it upstream until the driver could replace the propeller, not much drama or delay, but watching him replace the propeller sure brought Dave's comment to mind, check out some photos of the trip.


Picturesque beauty on the Slow Boat to "China" (Actually Nong Khiaw, Laos, but close enough).


Propeller repair job on the side of the river.


Our "Slow" and "Crowded" boat, at least everybody looks comfortable?

Another incident occured the next day when our minibus started smoking from the tires. The breaks were overheating, we had to stop. Once we did, it was discovered that there was brake fluid leaking everywhere. Not very good considering the driver was slamming on the brakes every 5 seconds to avoid trucks and chickens. Of course our driver told us "no problem" and we reluctantly got back in. We did have to stop twice more and wait on the side of the road to keep the brakes from burning out (at least they worked, kind of).

And finally our leg into China, once again, a roller coaster ride in a minibus to the Laos-Chinese border. We went to customs and got our stamps out of Lao, next was a matter of finding a way to get the 3 km to the China border. That was answered when a Chinese sleeper bus from Laos pulled up and offered to take us not only to the border but as far as Kunming, a city we weren't planning on reaching for 2 more days. This was a suprise, the bus looked actually kind of nice and we thought it would cost a lot of money. However, because we were literally picked up on the side of the road, not only we were able to get a great deal on the ticket we also saved money skipping two days at intermediate stops as well.


Our serendipitous sleeper bus that we picked up on the Laos Border.

The bus itself would have been comfortable if I was about 6 inches shorter, it definitely was cramped inside and we were the only foreigners on the bus. We quickly realized that there is a far greater language barrier here than in SE Asia. As far as the ride itself, at one point we waited three hours on the side of a mountain in some kind of traffic jam as there was plenty of construction going on in the area (a first hand look at all the resources China is snatching up lately) and then another 2 hour wait when the bus broke down and the crew had to fix it. The good thing was we were lulled to sleep by cheesy elevator music and Chinese pop songs being blared into our ears all night. What a ride, but we made it, 28 hours later, Yikes! After all that, we are currently in Kunming, China (Yunnan Province), check out the maps below.




Another country and another adventure, the next couple of weeks will take us to smaller and smaller towns until we are hopefully on the Tibetan Plateau overlooking the amazing city of Lhasa, we'll keep you posted.

Cheers,
Mike and Kendra