Rural Laos (Day 70 of the world trip)

11/13/2019

This morning the alarm clock rang at 6:30 am because we wanted to take the bus to Boten at 8:00 am. Since there's no 7-Eleven here in Laos, we had to go out on the street for breakfast. We bought 3 baguette rolls for 6,000 Kip (€0.60). We already had some butter, jam, and chutney as spreads, so I had a pretty European breakfast ^^ (Jonas is doing intermittent fasting, so I have breakfast alone ;-)).

At about half past seven, we set off on foot to the bus station. This one is much smaller than the one we arrived at yesterday, but Jonas found out in his research that buses to Boten leave from there. The information on the internet varied between 8:00 and 8:30 am, but otherwise, it sounded quite reliable.

So we arrived at the bus station in good spirits and bought two tickets to Boten for a total of 60,000 Kip. Boten is a city on the border with China and is known for its casinos, luxurious hotels, and duty-free area where you can buy Belgian chocolate, for example. Chinese people used to use a one-day visa for Laos just to indulge in their gambling or shopping ^^

A few years ago, the Chinese government decided that they didn't approve of this anymore, so this day tourism decreased. Boten is now a ghost town where the luxurious hotels and casinos still stand and their glass facades are still polished. Mandarin is exclusively spoken in the city and everything is paid for in Chinese yen.

Jonas and I thought that sounded pretty interesting, so we wanted to go there. And so we sat at the bus station this morning and waited. And waited. And waited.

The fact that no one (driver, ticket seller, other passengers) spoke English made things a bit tricky. 8:00 am came and went. And then 8:30 am passed too! :O The bus (which is a mini-van and had someone sleeping in the front seat since we arrived) that stopped in the bay with the sign "Borten" (just one letter too many but that should be Boten!) eventually drove away while I was in the toilet for 2,000 Kip :D

Oh no!! Previously, our ticket seller had helped other passengers find their bus and signaled to us to keep waiting. Hmm. Strange! Well, it's not like you could lose track of things. There were 5 bays or so and there was absolutely nothing going on :D But well. We tried asking a few people if they knew when the bus to Boten would leave, but without success.

Shortly after the first bus left without us, a second mini-van pulled into the bay. Instead of sleeping, the driver was sitting in the driver's seat and even rolled down the window halfway. We saw our chance and went to the driver with the ticket. "No Boten" was his answer. Too bad ^^ Like another driver who asked us about our destination before, this driver also laughed a bit nervously when he heard "Boten."

At 9:10 am we went back to the ticket counter and had already prepared the hand signals and gestures to ask about the departure time. Another staff member said 9:30 am and that one would also leave at 11:00 am. We asked her if there was a bus back to Luang Namtha from Boten (according to the internet, this part is particularly difficult. We had considered hitchhiking back if necessary, but almost 60km is quite far...), but unfortunately, she didn't understand us.

Well. Suddenly, the driver who parked at "Boten" made a WhatsApp call to Jonas' phone. The man on the other end spoke broken English and just asked if we wanted to go to Boten. Jonas confirmed that and then the man asked something else, but then the connection was gone or the man just didn't feel like it anymore, who knows :D The driver called his friend/translator again, they spoke for a while, and then we asked again if we would go to Boten. At first, the driver said "okay" but then he shook his head.

A bit frustrated, Jonas and I then decided that we did NOT want to go to Boten. If it was already so difficult to get there with the language difficulties, we were already half stranded in a ghost town :p :D

So we went to the ticket counter, gave our original seller the ticket, and said "No Boten". He took out his calculator and typed in 9:30 am. For a moment, Jonas wanted to give in and take the adventure (I had already surrendered. We just weren't understood^^). Our seller went to the driver with the ticket, they talked briefly ("No. No Boten"). And then the seller came back and to our surprise, he refunded us the full price of the ticket! Really nice!

Well - that was the first time we "gave up" in a situation, but it seemed very suspicious to us that the driver was so afraid to go to Boten ;-) Maybe something else has become of the ghost town now and no one dares to go there anymore, who knows? We were the only ones who wanted to go there anyway, and most locals found that strange enough already ^^

Back at the hostel, we looked for an alternative (well, Jonas researched and I went to sleep :p ). Then it became a temple and a stupa, which is pyramidal but also a kind of temple. Both are located on a hill at the edge of the city and from there you also had a nice view - in addition to the impressive buildings. Yes, we're tired of temples, but they're pretty every time ;-)

By the way, on the way there we bought a huge package of cookies :D 12 packs for a total of €1.50 - my good resolutions to reduce consumption are easily undone :p

On the way back, we stopped at Zuela Guesthouse, which also operates a restaurant. For a total of €8, we had two fruit shakes, spaghetti with vegetables, and a cheese baguette. Due to the French influence, baguettes are allegedly THE thing here ^^ However, the locals at the night market still eat classic Asian rice and noodles ;-)

Refreshed, we then rented mountain bikes for the second item on today's program - a ride to a waterfall called Nam Dee, 6.5 km away. Well, we could already guess from Google that the waterfall is small and unspectacular, but there were pictures that suggested swimming in the pools. Not bad in this heat! :)

The first two kilometers went along the main road towards the north, and then came the turnoff into the village called Nam Dee, like the waterfall itself. The road was neither paved nor cemented, but was rocky, bumpy, and occasionally very uneven. Maybe not the first choice for complete mountain bike beginners :p You were shaken up quite a bit and I got off several times and was completely annoyed and after maybe a kilometer, I didn't feel like it anymore :/

In the back of my mind, I knew that tomorrow we're going on a probably very exhausting 5-day hike, but well. Now we had the bikes and apart from the condition of the road, the way was mega cool :) We passed small streams, a lake with geese, rice fields, and crossed a few very original villages. It was an insight into the rural life of the Laotians and that was really interesting!

Jonas did his best to keep me in a good mood, but I still got off the bike from time to time to push because it was simply super uncomfortable to sit on the bike :p Eventually, we finally made it :) We were in a village of the Lantee people and two women sat with their children in front of a hut to collect about €1 per person for admission to the national park - a ticket that we gladly paid ;-)

The woman's children, like all the children on the way there and back, were very curious and greeted us friendly. A little girl even repeatedly blew us kisses and had a lot of fun. So sweet <3

We parked our bicycles and walked into the forest. Besides the waterfall, there was also a swing as an attraction. We had already seen natural swings before (made of lianas, for example) and wanted to see the whole thing, but then we were amused when we found completely normal playground swings on a small plateau ^^

You could hear the laughter of the visitors from afar - all Laotian teenagers. One of them was particularly interested in us and tried to find out as much as possible about us with his few words of English. Really brave of him :)

After the swings, we went to the actual waterfall, and well. What can I say? Look at the pictures :p :D We were aware that the waterfall was small and not so spectacular, but even swimming was not possible. There was hardly any water :D :D Maybe the Google pictures are from the rainy season, but the way it looked there today, it's more or less a dry stream bed with lots of plants and insects ^^

Nevertheless, it was a nice stop, if only to get off the saddle for a while :p :D The landscape and the villages themselves were already very worth seeing :)

After returning our bikes, we bought mosquito repellent at the pharmacy and then went back to the hostel to shower, and now we're (I think?) waiting for the night market to have dinner there ^^

Tomorrow we have to be at the tour operator's office, 100m down the road, at 8:30 am. So for the next 5 days, we won't be online, and even when we come back, it depends on our accommodation whether we'll have Wi-Fi :D

Because the Laotian SIM thing has failed for now -.- But we want to ask someone who speaks English (maybe one of the tour guides?). Maybe they can help us with something like that ^^

I still have a bit of "fear" of the trek, but Jonas is pure joy. In any case, I'm sure it will be an experience that we won't forget so quickly ;-)

So, see you soon :)