The road from Mai Chau was challenging at times for two people and two backpacks on one motorbike, especially after a good rain. There was one spot in particular that halted us in our journey. In rural Vietnam, a nice paved road turned into a gravel road which the turned into a huge mud puddle. After having driven nearly an hour all we could do was stare at it, both of us pondering our next action. It was then a miracle happened. A local on a motorbike, fully loaded with a mountain of stuff (chickens, plastic bottles, etc.) passed us by and with full confidence maneuvered his bike through the giant puddle with no complications. Maybe it was the shot of whiskey a local man gave me before leaving Mai Chau that day or maybe it was something else, but I said “Go for it!” Obviously we made it through but just warning, it can get a little hairy here and there. That was by far the worst spot. We stayed one night in Quan Son before heading the border the next day.
Motorbike skills
The Na Meo border crossing was very relaxed and easy. It was a Sunday and we were the only people there. The Vietnamese officer gave us a few tips on how to say “Hello” and “Thank you” in Laotian. It costs 200,000 VMD or ($10) to export the bike. Once we got to the Laos side it was $3 to import the bike and $40 each for our 30 day visa. The road on the Laos side isn’t all that great but not too bad. A little bumpy and pot-holish (that’s a word now). Nothing a little Paracetamol (Asian Tylenol) won’t fix. We passed little villages where people will either stare at you in utter surprise (like they haven’t seen a white person before) or warmly wave and welcome you with a resounding “HELLO!!!” It’s heartwarming when the village kids run down the steps of their huts to wave at us as we pass.
Na Meo border crossing
Farmland after the border crossing.
Our first night in Laos was in Viang Xai. We stayed at Chitchareune Hotel for only 100,000 kip ($12.50) a night. It was a good deal. We had a huge comfy king size bed, flat screen smart tv, and air conditioning. Ohhhh happy dayyy. There isn’t really much to this town, in fact it seems like a post-apocalyptic ghost town when you arrive. There is however some very interesting history regarding the impact the Vietnamese War had on the people. Like the people living in the tunnels in Vietnam the Laotian people sought refuge in the many caves that surround the area.
Entrance to Viang Xai. This image can be a little unsettling for an American. Once I learned the history, I had a better understanding.
Tim and I decided to take the audio tour of the caves which is 60,000 kip ($7). It sounds cheesy but it turned out to be pretty cool. First of all we were the only people on the tour which includes a (very little) English-speaking guide. The audio tour had good music, real interviews from survivors and the narrator sounded kind of like a British Morgan Freeman so it was easy to pay attention. I’m not a big history buff, so I had no clue about this “secret” war that the US had going on with Laos during the Vietnam War. So here’s the Readers Digest version The U.S. bombed Laos because they wanted to stop communism and Laos was believed to play a part in its expansion. Planes bombed Laos everyday from 1964 to 1973. Thousands of people belonging to the communist faction sought refuge in the caves from the bombs. The people had to learn life without being seen by the planes, spending most of the lives in the caves. Interesting facts – 1) They only had one hour to cook, 0500-0600, all the meals of the day so smoke wouldn’t be seen. 2) All the clothing they had that was white they rolled in mud to dye it brown. 3) They had ducks and chickens but if one was born white or red they would kill it. They learned this from a captured pilot who told them that he was told to look for chickens. There are many caves in the area but we were only allowed to go into 7 on the tour. Some caves were natural and some were a mix of natural and man-made (via dynamite). Some caves, that housed the bigwigs in the communist movement, had airtight bomb shelters within them that had these really awesome oxygen pumps (provided by the Russian’s). One of them still worked and you could feel the air coming out with manual cranking.
Airtight bomb shelter with oxygen pump.
Walking through the cave.
In the solders’ quarters.
One story stood out to me from the tour. We ascended a steep staircase to the mouth of a cave where the anti-aircraft artillery would attempt to shoot down the planes. We listened to a survivor tell us his story about when he shot one down. The people ran out to the plane to try and capture the pilot but he wouldn’t come out. Suddenly another plane came and started shooting at the people so they had to run back to the caves. Lucky for him, the pilot was rescued. It seemed like a scene from a movie. Standing where the Laotians were shooting down planes in the valley and imagining the scene of them running out to the plane. It felt very real. Viang Xai wasn’t even named until after the war was over, it means “City of Victory.”
View where the antiaircraft artillery was set up and where planes were shot down.
We rode for 8 straight hours through intermittent rain back through the traffic/construction hell that is Hai Phong to stay ahead of the storm. We finally made it to the town of Ninh Binh(famous for its karst formations that you can take a slow boat through) and got a room at Khach San Hoang Hai. That night at around 2am the storm hit with full furry, 70mph winds and heavy heavy rain. The power went out and our room had huge ten foot tall windows on three sides which luckily didn’t break(which was very worrying while trying to sleep) but they did leak like a sieve leaving our floor soaked. When we got up in the morning roughly a quarter of the trees in town had been blown down(including one right across from us that could have hit our hotel, and our windows) and the local Vietnamese were out with their hatchets(hatchets, lol, not even an axe much less chain saws) at 6am trying to clear a path through the roads. We decided to stay another night to give them time to get the roads clear for travel, especially since we were headed for more remote areas.
Motorbike on ferry
Storm Clouds Brewing
Riding in Rain Gear
When we left the next day, the gas gage was reading empty but I just assumed it must have been broken because I knew I had about a half tank when we arrived. However a few hundred feet down the road we ran out of gas. I bought some gas from a repair shop next to where we broke down and drove back to the hotel to inform them that someone had stolen our gas while stored at their hotel. The manager swore up and down this was impossible since they have cameras and refused to reimburse us. When I heard he had cameras I said “great let’s watch it from the time we arrived to the time we left and see what happened”, he of course refused. I called them thieves and stormed out and Victoria left a nice review on Google for them. All that for $2 worth of gas…. If they had half a brain they would have left a bit more so we were much further away rather than taking every last drop.
Trees Down on our street
View from the hotel the night after
When we finally got back on the road it went from nice, to beautiful, to just absolutely stunning. The area near the border with Laos is mountainous with some tiered rice paddies, very cool. On the way to Mai Chau you climb and climb on a very well paved road and then when you reach the top you get a beautiful view of the small town below and then begin the long descent into Mai Chau itself, also on excellent road.
Handicrafts in Mai Chau
Our Homestay
Ground Floor of the homestay
Once you get down into the valley it continues to amaze. You are surrounded on all sides by rice paddies which in turn is entirely surrounded by the tall green mountain peaks in every direction. Although there is a hotel and a guesthouse or two available the places to stay here are the homestays. This is where you basically stay at a family’s home which they’ve added a few rooms onto for travelers to stay. We got a room on stilts overlooking the rice paddies and mountains with a fan, an electric outlet, and bug netting for 200k dong ($9). Being at a higher elevation meant that the fan was enough to keep us cool at night for sleeping. In the town there are all kinds of hand made handicrafts for sale. This has been intentionally setup as a way to use tourism as a way to preserve traditional Vietnamese crafts in the area.
More Noodle Soup!
Rice Paddies
All this for 30k Dong at our homestay
All and all the tropical storm added some unnecessary excitement to an already exciting trip and although Mai Chau was stunning we were excited to get to Laos so we just spent the one night.
