Goodbye Lao, Hello Vietnam

After a great time in Luang Prabang, I made my way to Nong Khiaw in the very North East of Lao. At my travel agency, I had been told that the bus ride would take three hours – it turned out to be seven! 😱 Thus, I arrived in the late afternoon and didn’t have that much time left. I found a good accommodation after looking around for a little while and decided to go on a hike up to a viewpoint. I was a little concerned as I didn’t know how much time it would take, but I made it up and down before it got dark, so everything was fine. The climb was a bit tricky but not too long and the view was quite nice. I got to see Nong Khiaw, the Mekong and the surrounding mountains. On top of the mountain, I met a New Caledonian called Rayyan and went back down with him. On my only full day, I arranged a boat to get me to the Vietnamese border the next morning and then went for another hiking trip. I stopped at a temple first and had a quick look at it before I went to another viewpoint. Once again, the trail wasn’t in such a good condition but I made it up to the top without any major problems and got rewarded with a view which was much better than the day before since I got to see a lot from the summit. Unfortunately the weather was really cloudy, but at least it wasn’t raining or foggy. I stayed up there for quite a while, so when I was back in town, it got dark quite soon. As there was no one else staying at my hostel, I just went for dinner before spending the evening in my room.

After a good sleep, I was ready to get onto the boat which was supposed to take me to the Vietnamese border. The boat ride was quite allright, we didn’t go very fast, so the boat wasn’t shaking at all and I got to see some got views while floating down the river. It was a very long ride though, so we reached our destination after sunset. It was a small village called Muang Mai. It appeared to be really quiet, so I just had dinner and went to my room after checking into a guesthouse. A few days later, I was told that there is apparently sort of a disco with a lot of young locals, but unfortunately I didn’t realize that. My last night in Lao was allright and I left very early in the morning to finally go to Vietnam. In terms of landscape and nature, Lao was certainly the most amazing Asian country to me. It’s generally really quite as it’s neither densely populated nor very touristy, so it’s the perfect place to enjoy the nature. In addition, the inhabitants of Lao are really easy-going, relaxed and friendly so it basically never gets hectic. I can only recommend Lao to everyone 😊

Anyway, after some two or three hours of driving, we finally arrived at the border. Everything went without any complications so I had made it to the eighth and last country of my trip. Yay 😁 And the first impression I got of Vietnam was really good. The weather was fine and we drove through a lot of valleys surrounded by mountains and meadows as well as small villages. The bus stopped in the next bigger city then, Dien Bien Phu. I didn’t want to stay there though because of my tight schedule, and thank God, I immediately found a bus getting me to Sapa, the best known city of North Vietnam. It took us another seven hours to get there, so we arrived in Sapa in the dark. Spending a full day on a bus is not fun but sometimes necessary 😉 

As I hadn’t known where I was going to be in the evening, I hadn’t booked an accommodation beforehand so I hd to look for one on arrival. At first glance, this appeared to be pretty easy as there were signs of guesthouses everywhere, but since Javier, and Argentinian I had met on the bus and I preferred to stay at a hostel, it took some more time. After walking around for at least half an hour and being deceived by Mapsme a couple of times – the app doesn’t work that well in Vietnam - we eventually found a nice one. Javier went to bed really early as he had plans for the early morning, so I went for dinner alone and decided to explore the city the next day. My first stop was the Christian Church at the town square. It was the first church I got to see in Asia! After that, I went to the village of Cat Cat. It’s quite close to the city center and features the life of some indigenous people which makes it very popular. Unfortunately the weather was more than bad. Not only was it raining all the time, there was also fog everywhere so the views of the famous rice terraces were literally non-existent. What a pity 😢 And it was really cold! The first time I had to wear long sleeves and pants in Asia. Despite the weather, I liked Cat Cat. There were many different exhibitions of native art, some small shops and a traditional dance show. And, last but not least, a nice waterfall. I would lie though if I said that I would have liked to stay in that village all day long. The rain was constantly wetting my clothes and I was really freezing. It was such a pity that it was raining all the time. Sapa is a place with such a nice landscape and great views, but I maybe go to see 5 per cent of that 😕 I had actually planned to stay longer but as the weather forecast for the next days was by no means better, I decided to move on to Hanoi as soon as possible.

Some hours later, I found myself in the capital of Vietnam. In my next post, I will tell you what happened there.

Cheers,

Max