The morning after the great laundry fiasco, we left bright and early for Dien Bien Phu, trying to make the border crossing to Laos. Turns out it's a long way by bus- but drives through some of the most spectacular scenery in Vietnam. We were on a corrupt bus that was trying to overcharge everyone- not only us, the foreigners. All sorts of dodgy goings on with the buses, but we made it to Dien Bien Phu without mishap, and overnighted there.
Dien Bien Phu is the site of the final defeat of the French in Vietnam, after WWII and before the Vietnam War- which in Vietnam incidentally is called the American War- when the Vietminh fought the colonial French and their defeat at Dien Bien Phu signified Vietnam's independance. To commemorate the battle there is a bronze statue on "Hill A" where the heaviest fighting took place. It's of two soldiers overthrowing a baguette. Andy'd joke. Actually it's a man and a woman lifting up a child. In Dien Bien we finally found che- the drink with jellies and beans that I had been searching for throughout Vietnam- at a market stall.
Our bus to the border left at 5:30 a.m. The two Canadian girls who had been on the same buses as us the day before were there, and we were joined by two new travellers- an Australian couple, Bel and Steve. We were all able to cross the border without visas- which was quite a relief, as we had heard many reports that we couldn't at this border and were afraid of being turned back. We did get fleeced on the dong- kip exchange rate. The border is really in the middle of nowhere, so it took us another 4 hours after crossing to get to the nearest town. Once we crossed to the Lao side, things changed, and we began driving through small creeks in our bus- there didn't seem to be any bridges. At the end was a big river- too deep for the bus- so we had to make a boat crossing to town. From the town of Muang Khua, we had to more bus connections to get to our destination- Luang Prabang. We were able to push straight through on an unscheduled bus, and made it to Luang Prabang around 3 a.m. Fortunately we didn't have too much trouble finding a bed- Luang Prabang is a temple town and everything (except the bowling alley!) closes at 10:30. We also discovered that, as bus travel is relatively new in Laos- until recently people here travelled mainly by boatalong the rivers- Lao people tend to get very car sick on the windy road. Beacuse of that, our bus to Luang Prabang was gaced with a lot of puking, and our seat (the last available in the bus)was the site of a former incident, fortunately dried up. We were very glad to finally get to Luang Prabang
