An update from Hania:

In Kunming, China, we met up with the Hobbits, Ben and Mike, two guys we met on the ferry from Japan and who we saw again in Yangshuo. They actually resembled Sam and Frodo from the Lord of the Rings movies, especially when they were carrying backpacks, so the nickname stuck. We all considered going to Dali and Lijiang, two towns deep in Yunnan province, but we were all pretty tired of long bus rides and Chinese trains. In the end, the decision was unanimous, to cross over into Laos.

We bought bus tickets, (our dislike of busses temporarily dissolved) then hung out in Kunming for the day. We wandered around a neighbourhood full of foreign students, bookshops, small boutiques and cafes, and sipped our coffees from a balcony overlooking the whole scene. The weather was hot and beautiful, so after our break we went to Green Lake park and watched ducklings swimming in the ponds and listened to the bamboo creak and sway overhead while we enjoyed some of our last Chinese beer.

The next afternoon, we boarded the 4:30 bus; an altogether different story. The first thing we had to do was confirm that the bus was going to drop us off in Luang Nam Tha. Nope: the ticket seller had charged us the full cost of a trip to Luang Prabang, but the bus would only pass within 65km of Nam Tha. No big deal about the price, but the communication with the driver was a little difficult.

The sleeper bus was crammed full of neon green sheets, blankets and pillows: passengers like giant catterpillars lying in their bunks. No toilet on the bus but smoking was allowed. The ride went a little like this: take a Gravol to prevent motion sickness... driver leaning on the horn to blast away oncoming traffic... sleep... can't sleep... too hot... too cold... air too smoky... bumpy road... toilet stop (side of the highway)... more Gravol... sleep... noise... smoke... ugh...

Even still, the first few hours were OK. Sometime in the night I woke up to feel the bus lurching around on some bad roads. They kept getting worse, and our express bus slowed to a crawl in places. We expected to arrive at the border in the early morning, but time kept ticking by. We started getting nervous: where was the bus going? There were even moments when the driver didn't seem so sure, backtracking a couple of times, and unsuccessful in two attempts to buy gas. Great, we'll be stranded in the Chinese countryside. Around noon we reached Mengla, a border town where we stopped for lunch and communicated that we wanted to be let off at the first town in Laos. Success.

We made it and Pete negotiated a trip into Luang Nam Tha for us, the Hobbits and a Japanese guy named Jun. The driver wanted $20 US - ridiculous, but he was the only guy that would take us there. Pete tried to lower the price, but the guy wouldn't budge. OK, so we got in the back of the truck (yes, sometimes the local bus is the back of a truck), but the highway was closed for two hours for construction. So we took the opportunity to try the fabled Beer Lao, and were not disappointed. We sat in a roadside restaurant surrounded by bougainvillea and squawking roosters.

The ride to Luang Nam Tha on an open bus was cool: we had to stop for dynamite blasting on the road ahead, so we marvelled at the countryside and took photos of our first Lao sunset.

Our 65km trip seemed rather long after an hour and a half, and when night fell, we started to feel the same kind of worries as we had on the Chinese bus, perhaps more acute. We were in the middle of rice paddies. Nothing else around. Was the driver taking us to Luang Nam Tha? Where would we spend the night if we got stranded? Were we being taken out to the middle of nowhere to be robbed? Every light in the distance signaled hope that we were on the right road, hope that faded along with the lights of dimly lit homes. Then at last, a signpost, and in the distance, Laung Nam Tha. Two hours after our ride from the border began, the not so bright lights of the provincial capital of appeared.

We pulled up to a guesthouse, checked out the room, did not argue, and took our bags upstairs for a much needed shower and rest.

We knew that getting to Lao would be hard, yet here we are, alive, glowing and loving it. More tales from the trip to come...