Thailand to Laos - Day 189 (17,272 miles)

Our last night in Chiang Mai was a few beers and good conversation with John, Kelly, Matthew and Anita. Both couples are travelling two up on motorbikes.

On the way to Laos we stopped at Tha Ton a small town on the Kok river. We had breakfast in this little hut on the river, quite idyllic. Breakfast lasted around 4 hours!

Newly picked tea leaves drying.

Rice planting, back breaking stuff.

Late afternoon on the Mekong river. We approached Chiang Khong the northernmost border crossing from Thailand to Laos late in the afternoon. We followed signs for a resort and travelled next to the river for about 15 miles only to get there are discover it was much to upmarket for us and around 10 times our daily budget. So a round trip of 30 miles on bumpy roads and all we got was a nice photo of the river!

We did find cheaper accommodation and set off early the next morning to board the ferry to Houei Xai in Laos.

John gets a couple of helping hands below.

Even when land border crossings go smoothly they still seem to take a couple of hours getting stamped out of one country and into the next, then the bike paperwork has to be completed and in an attempt to travel legally bike insurance needs to be purchased. This time John stayed with the bike while I went (as directed) to a police office to buy insurance. After 15 mins of trying to explain what we needed and two policemen writing many details from our registration document and passports in a big ledger I was told they didn't sell insurance. 5 minutes more gesturing brought the response that the insurance sales office was closed for the day. We decided to take a risk and go on without insurance until we reached another town, we had gone about 20 metres when a lady shouted (in pretty good English) from another building that she would sell us insurance! It's hard to know what is legal or valid in these situations but we came away with a sticker that may or may not mean our payment actually bought us any cover.

Outside the Customs office a lively game of Petanque (Boules) was in progress, there was lots of shouting and money changing hands. Petanque and volleyball are very popular, a couple of the better things that 50 years of French rule left the Laos people.

4 on a bike! Chances are they weigh less than the 2 of us.

Laos is a Communist country and has had a very troubled history (more about that later). Although much of the countryside and terrain is similar to Thailand it is a significantly poorer country and the rural population's living conditions and agricultural development is much less advanced. The roads are in worse condition making travelling slow (although the lorries and tourist buses still fly along). A lot of villages share one water tap for the whole village and many still bathe and wash clothes in the rivers.

Having said all that there seem to be at least a few satellite dishes in most villages!

Our first stop was in the small town of Luang Namtha, Kelly and John had recommended the great Zuelas guesthouse below. Our first shopping trip was to buy the all important local sim card so we have some communication (just in case the local emergency services are ever required, fingers crossed they're not) and to practice our Laos "Sabaydee" (Hello) and "Khawp Jai" (Thank you). As long as we can manage these words in whatever the local language is we don't feel like completely ignorant "Farangs" (that's foreigners by the way).

We then sampled some great spicy Laos food and the imaginatively named Beer Lao which is also very good.

Love

Jane and John

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