marathon into Laos...

4.30am! The 3 alarm clocks shout out loud at the same time and you wake up with that annoying head ache for lack of sleep. No time to stay in bed now, sweety. Waky waky, rise and shine!
Miguelito, Flo and Louis jump off the bed, wash their slimmy faces and rush to the bus station.
It's painful but no one complains, you just do it instintively, it's got to be done. As we get to the bus station we finnaly see a few white souls. People who, like us, decided to take the rough way. They kept arriving and at the end one could count 10 wersterns for 30 locals and shit loads of luggage inside and outside, not too bad! At least we can catch up and exchange stories.

I was impressed to see this german couple on their bicycles. The day before, as we were coming towards the end of our 8 hours journey, right on the foot of a very long steep hill there was this exausted couple pushing up their bicycles. We drove pass them quick and I remember to think 'there is a great way to travel, one can stop any time'. But we kept driving up the mountain for some good 100km, always steep up, and I remember to kind of change my mind about it 'God, those guys will never make it'.
But they did!!! 5am next day and there they where loading their bicycles onto the top of the bus. I approached them to explain how impressed I was and gave them my complements. They laughed and confirmed it hadn't been easy at all...


And so we were crossing the border together and the food was scarse: bread and cookies for 6 hours drive... And what a drive... Ahead of us, something even a bit more 'edgy' then the day before...


Today's aim was to get the bus to Laos, to a little town called Muang Khwa, on the banks of the river Nam Ou, 6 hours journey. From there we would have to get a long-tailed boat for 5 hours down the river to Nong Khiaw from where finnaly you get some sort of tourist minivans that take you on other direction in Laos.
But my aim was not going to Nong Khiaw, I had been doing my reading and Miguelito wanted to stay in a little village on the banks of the river before Nong Khiaw, called Muang Ngoi. So the boat would have to drop me off there.







The local bus













34km to the border and we eventually we made it... easy!


Until we got to the Laos side... Road works... no wonder. Is there any part of this road NOT under construction or rough? The answer is 'nop'!
The bus got stuck for 2 hours waiting for the workers to clean the road and make it transitable...




A war relic..?








So we left the bus behind and walked to the Customs in the Lao Border, an old building lost in the mountain, to get our Visas.





Oh! There's why...
There use to be a road here... a few hours ago...






On the other side we warmed up our souls... Moral was high!!






iThec II







Visas sorted, coffee stuffed in, introductions made and off we went.
Now...
How to explain this... This next road... THA ROAD! About 200km of dirt track one-and-a-half-vehicle wide road snaking in the mountains in the north of Laos. No pavement on all its extension and in most sections only one vehicle could drive through. Ok... not too bad...
I remember the news in Portugal when I was younger, and still nowadays, when every now and again random news would annouce a bus of local people of tourists had rolled over a mountain in the Phillipines, India, Nepal or Conhinchina (this town actually exists, its in vietnam) and one would see the aerial images of some sort of racked metal vehicle bodywork down a ravine in the tropical forests, specially during the rainy season...
This is what kept coming to my mind when we were venturing through this road. And I was glad it's not the rainy season. On one side of the bus, a high mountain, on the other, a sudden drop where the wheel often would pass a few cm away of edge.
I got to be honest, to look out the window was this adrenaline rush feeling mixed with the calm generated by the scenic views above us, but at any point I believed that the worst was to happen, or perhaps I didn't want to believe. I looked around and whilst most westerners were quite wary and wouldn't stop for a minute, always looking out the window, most locals where dead asleep... heads banging on the windows... or playing cards... 'They must have done this trillions of times'. And of course, at that point one cannot really go anywhere else... It was your option, so now you take it! I am not complaining.
And the most important think: despite you have never seen him before and he looks as weirdo as the rest, you HAVE to be cool and trust the driver!

And when all was over... I freakn LOVED IT! eheh...

Probabily the most exciting 200km of my life so far... Of course apart from strech of road Lisboa-Alentejo when I was a kid!

The pictures below may not really show the worst bits. These are the only images I could register as it wasnt easy to get a steady hand outside the window.




The mountains...


































































They don't seem really bothered...
















































Theres a road somewhere there...








and here...













When we eventually got to the foot and things got easier (despite the swore bum and stiff legs), drove through some unspoilt villages and now the westerners could take a snooze...























6hours...


not much leg room...










But we made it, dude!!

Although he knew it from the beggining...









And you think this is the ONLY way these people have to get to work or see their families...
And we complain when our car brakes down... What if 'their' car fails?



Eventually we made it to Muang Khwa. No white soul here either...
We would now have to get the local boat down the river. But these boats will only depart if they get full because its a long journey. Fortunatelly, we were 10 of us willing to go the same way so we charted one boat for about 10$ each. Not too bad... for the driver! We left Louis and another guy behind who decided to head north.

























The bicycles of Jasmine and Kai, the german couple, also made it in one piece!






























But we had no local currency so we made an incursion to the town's 'Bank'...









to change Vietnamese Dong to Lao Khib!
Can you check the rate for me please?
















At this point everybody was S-T-A-R-V-I-N-G and getting ready to seat down and have a Glorious meal...
'There's no time... It's getting late and the boat cannot get there by night so we have to leave now' said the guy selling the tickets...
Caos was installed!!! Everybody running to the street little shops that only sell soap bars, sweet candies and metal blades to stock in as much food as possible for the trip. Me and Flo got last, I pulled them into this restaurant. 'Come with me...' We stocked up some bread and yougurts... It was 2.30pm and we had had no food yet.
But food doesn't really matter now, we have to get on that boat!










The Nam Ou River runs for 448 km from Phongsaly Province to Vientiane Province and is an afluent of the great Mekong River.
Luggage and bicycles loaded onto the boat and off we went. Ahead of us a 4 hours journey through pristine waters, forested landscape and rural villages along the river banks.
After we manage to fit all in the tinny boat time to get some nutrients down the system.


water, baguette bread, bottled boiled eggs (don't know what bird or animal as I can't read the lao labels), bananas and yougurts. We all shared our food.










5 germans, 1 dutch, 2 french, 1 tuga...


Tom, the dutch (green cap, sunglasses on the right) showed very curious about me when he realised I was portuguese. He kept asking detailed questions and I didn't really understand why until he say he loved our beautiful country and is Fan no. 1 of... Alentejo!
Alentejo?? I laughed out loud... He knows Beja very well and Mertola... He has been to Alentejo several times... and he is already invited!









And so we set off. Despite we were gonna be crammed in this little boat for at least 4 hours, despite we were coming from a 6hours journey on this silly bus ride, despite we were feeling dirty, hungry, tired; all these passed to second plan as we started floating down the river.
































natives...




















stopped for a wee... uma mijinha no mato!


















villagers are picked up and dropped off down the river.













the skipper and his whife and little son who travel with him.












Lost villages allong the river banks...
Some villages would be difficult to spot. Only when we were really close one could notice their presence, often because of the boats moored on the river banks.
There is no land access to these villages.

























































































alive pigs wrapped up and ready to go...





























New Captain, new rules!!
After another quick stop and this time the boat was taken over by the foreigners!!! He will now drive you through the most beautiful scenic route...















Once again, difficult to find the words to describe the feelings for being in such place...
2 months earlier when I first idealized this route, a bit against the odds as travel books don't previlege it, everything was nothing but paper and maps and a tricky logistic process ahead. I wasn't certain if it would be possible to make, but Miguelito was confident!
2 months later, there he is. What was then paper and drawings became now a 3 dimensional amazing landscape along the banks of a remote river in landlocked Laos. And couldn't stop thinking about it. It is a good sense of achievment.
As Jimmy Cliff sang once: 'You can get it if you really want...'
And the landscape around us was breathtaking...













































smoking signs..?



























4 hours after departure it was getting cold and late. The village I planned to stay was not far away now but the town everybody was heading off to was still one more hour down the river. So half of the group decided to stay in Muong Knoi.






But until we get there...






the sun was kissing goodbye...





















Eventually, we arrived to Muang Ngoi...
at last...






It had been one looooong day...
one more...