Land of Eternal Bus Rides

Hanoi to Vientiane, Lao

24 hours on a bus, 2 hours waiting at the border, a downpour, mist rising through the jungled mountains. We 20 or so men, one lady, and one more tag-along we picked up at the border (she had forgotten her passport in Hanoi, so waited a day for friends to bring it) looked like a human jenga game as we tried to extricate ourselves from the seats. We each had a seat to ourselves (and one 25kg sack of rice/ pig feed/ better disguised opium?) and were sprawled out trying to get comfortable. We had the friendly bus apparently, as the other stopped in the middle of the night to load black plastic-wrapped packages, which they put under bricks in the aisle. A bit shady, to say the least. But, running foreigners across the border as their cover got them through customs...

A few noteable sights as I was leaving Vietnam (yes, a pic is worth more but I'll try not to use 1000 words, didn't have camera handy):
live pigeons (presumably for sale as food) bundled together by their ankles on display, with the hawk that caught them standing guard nearby...
goldfish (the large ones) for sale off the back of a bicycle...
dogs on their way to the market (don't worry, they don't eat their own puppies, these were imported from Lao and Thailand)...
a string across the road for security at the border with Lao...

This list will grow, I'm sure. I'm not even listing the things that seem commonplace now, such as frogs with heads cut off, still hopping around in buckets at the market.

Vientiane, Lao was indeed a small, quiet town. Lots of friendly smiles and "sabaidee" (hello) greetings. That is a welcome sight. And, it's hard to get them to sell you anything! No one rushes over to you and hands you something, which, at that point, indicates the assumption you're going to buy it...

Yesterday, in Vong Vieng, I did some "caving," though I didn't get far without a flashlight, and was led to the best swimming hole by three young Lao boys. Took morning bus from Vientiane, stayed for 6 hours to run around the rice paddies, and then got on late bus for Luang Prabang. Will stop here for a couple days, to do the volunteer project I mentioned to many of you. Hopefully that will lead to small villages surrounded by bamboo thickets and streams. Will update again soon. Sabaidee.