Sabaidee, Laos!

Out of China, into Laos. There we had to fill out some forms to get the visa upon arrival. It was not too complicated and after paying 37 Dollars per person we were actually in Laos. Looking at the landscape not much had changed but the atmosphere was somehow more relaxed.

Laos!

In Boten we wanted to stay in some kind of a horror hotel. Boten had been a flourishing casino place until 2011, when Chinese government shut it down as too many Chinese citizens lost too much and had problems therefore. Casinos are illegal in China.
Since then some buildings are just standing there decaying, but this one hotel is still in use anyways.
At some places we felt as if in a ghost town or in “The Walking Dead”. To maintain those houses would be too expensive, pulling them down too, so let them just stand there.

that was a car, earlier

wuah, zombies!

doesn’t look legal…

Our hotel was also great. On the outside it looks pretty fancy, but already in the lobby somethings are just wrong. There are a lot of bugs and moths and the lobby is open on the backside. There bushes are blooming and when it rains water might stand in the lobby.

our fancy hotel 😀

just a small bug

the lobby

what’s with all the TVs?

With the creepy elevator we went up to the fifth and last floor. Mold and decaying doors and signs everywhere, also the view from the terrace was nice. 😉

And our room? Nice at the first glance. But when we had a closer look you could see the sheets had been there a long long time, there were even small creatures on it. More creatures on the walls and a gecko in the bathroom, sharing the house with two cockroaches. 😀 That was our first time we had cockroaches in a hotel…

The next morning we were pretty glad to leave this place, also as cycling was excellent. The temperature at eight o’clock was agreeable, mist was in the air and the roads were’not crowded at all. Green whereever we looked and friendly people were calling “hello”, “hi” or “sabaidee”.

Along our way to Luang Namtha we met Bob, a Scottish cyclist living in Cambodia. Together we were killing time until the road works would be finished to continue our ride. It was him who told us about hobomaps.com, where we could find details about the roads and guesthouses in Laos. The three of us continued our ride to our guesthouse in Luang Namtha together, also we went for dinner and a beer in the evening. Bob is an extremely lovely guy who enjoys life and cycling a lot. He had so many interesting things to tell, it was amazing. Vietnam should be a great place to cycle too.

this is Bob 🙂

Luang Namtha is a small place with basic but really good tourist infrastructure. The food was good, even though is wasn’t as good as in China. 😉
The next day we booked a tour. Luckily for us two other people wanted to do the trekking-kayak-combination with us.
When we wanted to get something to eat afterwards, we bumped into Roger and Silvia from Switzerland, who didn’t even recognise us at the beginning. 😀 Together with them and their China travel companions Wilhelmina and Björn we went to the night market. The stories they had to tell about China weren’t as positive as ours. They had to drive 9.000 km in 30 days by car or motorbike, which was pretty stressful. They didn’t even have time for actual sightseeing, they were always in a hurry and Chinese officers made things even more complicated. So they definitely could not recommend travelling through China on the own vehicle. Bicycle should be ok though. 😉

However, it was really nice seeing them again, especially in such a chilled out place as Luang Namtha in Laos. 🙂

nice things on the market: maggots