In the Land of a Million Elephants

Day 9 of our overland journey from Hong Kong to Bangkok sees us spending our last night in Vientiane, before making the 8.5 hour bus journey to Luang Prabang, the jewel of Indochina, where time supposedly comes to a stand still.


So far we've sat our butts on the seats of buses for more hours than we'd like, the most intense of which was the journey from Hué to Vientiane, via Savannakhet. It was a 10 hour bus ride from Hué to Savannakhet (on a 'tourist' bus that definitely had more of a local vibe going on), followed by another 8 before arriving in Vientiane at 5 something the following morning.

The ride from Dong Ha to the border was somewhat surreal, since we were traveling somewhat along the line of the 17th parallel, within the demilitarized zone where some of the fiercest battles between the Viet Cong and the US troops took place. The landscape bore resemblance to all the films made about the conflict, and as our buss passed by some villages I couldn't help but feel sadness for these villagers, that although they were the most removed from the decisions and concerns of the policy-makers, they were the ones most affected by the whole mess.

One thing that was noticeable almost immediately passing through the Lao Bao border crossing was the drastic change in landscape. Whereas the Vietnamese countryside was one of lush green vegetation and rice paddy fields, we saw nothing but miles after miles of dried up infertile lands in Laos, a desolate terrain deplete of any harvest. It's amazing how much geographic location can determine the fate of the inhabitants. And compared to all the three-storey houses that dominated the highway landscape in Vietnam, even in rural parts, all we saw lining along the highway in Laos were wooden huts, most being little more than a small elevated wooden platform with a straw roof on top. No walls, and certainly no doors.

But despite suffering on the agricultural front, and being a lot poorer than its neighbours, Laos more than makes up for it by the genuine friendliness of the people and the slow and laid-back way of life. It is really, like what they say, the 'real' South East Asia. I must admit that Vientiane is a lot more modern and developed than I had expected - after all, one can not only buy, but also get their iPhone unlocked in this city. Still, compared to other capital cities in the region, Vientiane is definitely up there in terms of the chilled out vibe.

Upon arrival in Vientiane at the crack of dawn, we spent the first few hours in search of a place to drop off our bags and catch up on a little sleep since it was quite impossible to get any of that on the bus. To our surprise, just about every hostel/guest house within a mile radius was fully booked up. Our only option was to wait until check-out time, which went anywhere from 10 a.m. to noon, to see if there were any guests checking out and making their north to Vang Vieng or elsewhere. So we sat by the edge of the Mekong, looking across to Thailand, and kept checking with the various hostels every so often. Ironically, by mid afternoon, we had hostel owners asking us if we were looking for rooms everytime we walked past one.

We ended up settling in at the Youth Inn, which isn't mentioned in Lonely Planet, but probably will in future editions, since it has all the trademarks of a recommendation, e.g. cheap clean rooms, good and friendly travel advice from owner, bus/train bookings, convenient location, etc.

Day one in Vientiane was spent on bicycles. Although Vientiane is quite manageable on foot, the scorching sun (which we never saw once in Vietnam) and the light traffic made cycling a very attractive way of seeing the city. We rode around and checked out the various tourist sights, the Patuxai, That Dam, Tat Lao Market, various Wats.

* internet cafe closing... to be continued from Luang Prabang