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Dear all hello again! We've been on the road so many hours during these last few days that it feels we've been travelling for ages although we're only on our second week. We left you at Luang Prabang with our last blog. We stayed there for 2 1/2 days and enjoyed it greatly. Last Wednesday we took a bus to Phonsavanh a small town central-north west of Laos. The bus ride was nice we had great weather and could enjoy the really fascinating landscape. The road was a bit winding and scary at times but, unlike others we refrained from Lao-lao the previous day :-). As you would expect the bus was packed with travellers but also a lot of Lao people sitting everywhere! Phonsavanh itself is probably an ugly small city, nothing to do. The next day we did a most bizzare tour to the nearby "Plan of Jars", 3 fields with sandstone, huge jars, that nobody knows how old they are or how they ended up there. According to the guide, the chief Lao archaeologist is studying at the moment in Australia for an advanced degree so he can research and explain this jars phenomena, he he! We also went to a village where a Lao wedding was taking place. We drank so much Lao-lao I barely remember anything from the rest of the evening :-) These Lao people will not take no for an answer!
Early next day (5.30am) and with a bit of a hangover we set off for Vietnam with a "V.I.P." bus. One of the most bizzare, shocking and exhausting experiences ever! "V.I.P." bus means they put your luggage inside the bus, they stack them on the back seats, instead of on top of the bus like the "public" bus we took for Phonsavanh, it's hillarious! Apart from our luggage the bus was packed again with a few foreign travellers and loads of Lao people again sitting everywhere, carrying all sorts of stuff with them. Plus, they spit everywhere, inside/outside, all the time! Anyway, we had our seats so we were OK, but I was feeling a bit sorry for them as they had paid the same ticket and they had to sit on the floor or who knows where. The weather was (and still is) a bit bad, it was raining all day, so the bus took a long time to reach the Lao-Vietnam border (a new border opening at Nam Can). When we finally made it there it took us about 2 hours to clear immigration in Lao and Vietnam. Did Lao first, into the bus, 10 meters ahead stopped again, out of the bus again to do the Vietnam immigration he he! This was quite an experience, the Vietnamese were sending us through a muddy road to customs and then back again to get stamps and what not. They're quite intimmidating as well. And of course they did not know that Greece and Hellenic Republic (as it stands on the passport) is the same thing, so it took us a while to explain. When all of this was finally over we set off again for one of the most mortifying rides of my life. 1200km altitude, muddy and narrow roads, a jam-packed bus, it was reaaaallllyyy scary! After 7 hours we reached a small village where we took another bus to Hanoi. This bus ride was OK, during the night, you couldn't see too much and the roads were a bit better. In the village we were attacked by locals that were trying to practice their English, they even brought their English-Vietnamese books haha! We reached Hanoi at 5.30 this morning and now we are completely wrecked. The wholel trip lasted exactly 24 hours non-stop!
More on Hanoi and Vietnam in our next blog!
Pinelopi
PS: The funniest thing ever is that from Bangkok to the most isolated village in Lao, G-l-eece has gained international respect and recognition by becoming football no.1 Eulope :-) !!
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