"Sabai Dee" Laos

Our bus was leaving from the other side of the river in half an hour. Not only did we have to cross the river and find the bus station, but we had to get out of Thailand and pass through Laos immigration control.

We ran to the border crossing at Chang Khong only to find that we had outstayed our Thai visa by 1 day. "You will have to wait," said the ever helpful border control officer. "Great start!" We finally suceeded in escaping Thailand with a 1000 Thai Baht fine. A short boat ride later and we were greeted by a nice lady saying: "Welcome to Loas!" We flew thro' passport control and hopped on a pickup truck with a Dutch couple which took us to the main bus station.

We had made it! The bus was there and fully loaded. Our rucksacks were thrown on the roof, joining the five motorbikes and countless satellite dishes, televisions etc. We squeezed into our seats and the bus finally left an hour after it should have!

The journey to Luang Namtha was 9 hrs. The road was awful - no tarmac and so bumpy. One poor guy couldn't stop being sick. At one point we had to get off the bus for it to go up a hill. We picked up people on the way and when we thought they couldn't squeeze any more on - a man with a 3 ducks joined us! (See photo of the flat tyre).

We arrived in Luang Namtha exhausted in the early evening. We followed the Dutch couple to a clean and large hotel ($6 a night) and had shower, dinner and then bed.