After spending a couple of days in Muang Ngoi, the small city without any internet connection, I finally decided to pursue my plan of getting to Phonsavan. Phonsavan is a city in one of the most war-ridden areas of Laos. This area got severely hit by bombers during the Vietnam War, resulting in an extremely high contamination of UXO (unexploded ordnance).
I learned about this during my first days in Laos and until today consider this topic one of the most interesting in this country.
Therefore I made the plan to leave Nong Khiaw, take a bus to Luang Prabang (one of Laos biggest cities in which I already spent a couple of days a week ago) and then continue my way to Phonsavan the next day by taking a 7 or 8 hours bus there.
Day 1
The plan changed before I had even started to follow it, because my bus to Luang Prabang, which was supposed to leave at 12AM in Nong Khiaw had already left at 11:30AM, without me.
So I bought a bus ticket for the 1:30PM bus and waited.
I got into a talk with the only other europeans waiting at the station, Patrizia and Hannes, a nice couple from Switzerland. They told me that their next destination would be Phonsavan as well. However, they had chosen a different way to get there. They would take a bus to Vieng Thong (a city I have never heard of before) and then continue from there. Somebody seemed to have told them that they could catch a bus connecting Vieng Thong to Phonsavan.
Since I was not too eager to go back to Luang Prabang (I did not like the place very much) I decided to change my ticket and join them.
The bus ride to Vieng Thong was hilly and curvy as always with a couple of obstacles ranging from cows or pigs on the street to small landslides which required to stop and drive around very carefully. However, we had some amazing mountain views on our way as well as many friendly local people smiling at us whenever we passed a village. The 25-seater bus served as a main means of transport for all these villages and people would get in and out every half hour or so. There were people with enough groceries to feed their whole village (which might be in fact the reason for that) and even one guy transporting life chickens in the bus.
Life chickens on Board
Laos Streets – you gotta love ‘em
The whole ride took us around 5 1/2 hours and when we arrived in Vieng Thong we checked into the first guesthouse that we saw. There was no internet connection, which is the reason for my lack of posting yesterday, and the whole place and its surrounding were rather uninviting. Therefore the news that the only bus to Phonsavan would leave at 7:00AM was a positive surprise, as it meant that we would not have to stay in Vieng Thong longer than needed.
We had lunch, a couple of Beerlao and went to bed early.
Day 2
Fresh Market in Vieng Thong
The day started with a visit to the fresh market and the search for the ticket office. This turned out to be a rather complicated task, which took us a lot of asking around and interpreting the Lao only answers before we finally found it. Long story short, there is no direct connection from Vieng Thong to Phonsavan. It turned out we would have to take a minibus to Phou Lao (a small town in the middle of nowhere) and then change for a connecting bus to Phonsavan. Said, done. The ride was quite uneventful apart from the minivan killing a chick which was not quick enough to escape from the street. OUCH. Two hours later we were dropped off on a street crossing in the middle of the more than authentic and remote village Phou Lao. After asking around we were told that there indeed is a bus to Phonsavan, which would leave in 3 (!) hours.
Since there were no alternatives whatsoever we decided to get ourselves comfortable on that street crossing. We did not dare to leave it, as we all had already had experience with the scheduling of buses in Lao. You simply cannot trust the times.
The crossing that we watched for three hours
My travel companions: Patrizia and Hannes
The time flew by surprisingly quick, we enjoyed watching the locals living their allday life, kids cutting herbs, women selling fruits and lots of chickens everywhere. To our surprise, the bus arrived very punctually at 12AM, the exact time it was schedules for. WOW.
This final ride took us another five hours, the streets went uphill most of this time and there was a curve about every 8 seconds. I have taken quite a few buses in Thailand and Laos but have never experienced such a amount of curves. NEVER. The driver drove very carefully and we felt quite safe. The ride was, as pretty much every bus ride in Laos, featuring amazingly stunning views over hills, valleys, villages and animals. Even though every ride here takes an eternity you never run out of fascinating visual impressions.
A typical Lao village – we passed dozens of them
Cows blocking the street
I was more than glad to arrive in Phonsavan and even the more after having found a decent place to stay with a fast internet connection. In the next days I plan to visit the Plain of Jars and to gather informations regarding the UXO contamination in the area. I will keep you posted. Promise =)
Yours
Crazy Ivory
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