Here Be Elephants

Lak Sao is the town closest to the border with Vietnam, and was our final stop in Laos. It was an uneventful day, but the 58 km journey was made harder by an increasingly strong headwind. There was a long climb out of Ban Na Hin’s valley, which afforded great, but misty views. The rest of the day was gentle, skirting south of a pretty magnificent mountain range. Lak Sao was a hole, but surprisingly flooded with foreign motorbike tourists, who had rented bikes in Na Hin and were doing a four-day loop of the region. Why anyone would choose to stop here is beyond us. We had dinner in the appropriately named ‘Only One’ Restaurant, which was truly diabolical, our worst meal in Laos, and also horribly over priced. Not a great goodbye to Laos.

The last 32 km to the Laos border, though flat, were difficult as the headwind of the day before had increased to gale like proportions that really had us struggling. The last few km were uphill to the Nam Phao border crossing. Traffic was virtually nonexistent on the road, and the border itself was also very quiet. On the Laos side, service was pretty poor; we had to call the border guards over to stamp our papers and let us through. They also charged us 10000 kip each as it was Saturday, and they felt like it. However, the Laos guards were a model of efficiency and customer service compared to those in Vietnam. The only guard manning the stamp was soundly asleep. We coughed and shuffled with decreasing politeness and increasing volume. He awoke, saw us, and went back to sleep. Yay Vietnam. Only when our camera came out and was focused on him did another guard appear at some speed, and our border crossing was enabled. We had to pay a dollar each for the stamp though.

Entering Vietnam was like re-entering China. The sun disappeared behind a veil of smog and grime. But Vietnam has a small gift for anyone entering at this border by bicycle – 17 km of gentle downhill. This first 17km were also almost completely devoid of life or habitation…though we did see a truly enormous tarantula crossing the road. Similarities with China only increased as we got deeper into Vietnam. Overly loud greetings (with overtones of mocking), incessant honking, and pollution coated vegetation were the standard once again. Gone were the joyful ‘sabaidee’s’ of Laos children who high-fived us as we passed, replaced now by obnoxious teenagers on motorbikes harassing us.

Laos is slightly larger than Great Britain, with a population of 7 million. Vietnam is slightly larger, but with eleven times the number of people, and it really shows. We crossed paths with some German tourists on our second day in Vietnam. They were heading towards Laos, and asked us hopefully ‘Is it quiet there?’. Vietnam is not quiet, and the area we are in is not designed for tourists. It is rapidly industrialising, and could probably be compared to China 20 years ago, before they put the gloss on. It must seem that we are being pretty harsh to Vietnam, but the contrast with laid back, going nowhere Laos is intense and hard to deal with. It doesn’t help that this part of Vietnam is one of the poorest, and least attractive. Our guidebook skips over this region entirely, as it seems do most tourists. We’re going to steam on down Highway One as fast as we can to get to something nicer. Perhaps we should also invest in face masks and earplugs. The traffic isn’t too bad, but the noise and pollution are obscene.

AW + MD

Sorry to flood you with so many posts. Vietnam is more industrialized so internet access will be more common… hopefully there will be more frequent and smaller updates now. Photos from this leg will follow in the coming days. Thank you and goodnight.

~ by Elephants on December 5, 2010.

Posted in Uncategorized