After three rather grueling days of travel, Jennifer and I have escaped the grasp of communist China and are now firmly within the clutches of communist Laos. It was an exhausting ordeal in getting here, but hopefully we can rest and recuperate for a bit. It seems to be what Laos is known for.

By the time we reached Dali, China, Jennifer and I were pretty worn out and tired of traveling through China. The city remains, for the most part, a blur to us. A few days there and we decided to head toward Laos. Our first bus from Dali to the Lijiang airport left without us so we had to wait for the next one. We convinced the driver to drop us off at the airport as it was on the way and we hoofed it the rest of the way. It turns out that the Lijiang airport shuts down during the afternoon for a little siesta. We waited patiently for the employees to show back up so we could check in.

Our flight to Jinghong in southern China was less than an hour long, but what a difference in atmosphere. Jinghong is in the Xishuangbanna region of China, known to be much more tropical and Thailand-like. The city itself was a dump cleverly disguised with palm trees. We checked into the Ruifeng Hotel, a place that Lonely Planet describes as, "very clean, with carpeted floors." Well, the floors were mostly carpeted, I guess. We were on the third floor of the otherwise empty hotel and our bathroom was very dimly lit. The plus side is that because of the poor lighting I was only able to see the one giant cockroach on the wall. I'm pretty sure the roach was chewing up a small Chinese boy, but I didn't have time to investigate as I went to find a weapon before Jennifer saw it and the screaming started. I found one our towels (we knew we had no intention of actually using the shower in the morning) and whapped the bug as it tried to make an escape. I then wrapped it up in the towel, twisted it up, beat it on the wall, threw it in the tub, grabbed the shower head and beat it for a few minutes. Its screams were disconcerting, but I toughed it out. We didn't sleep well that night and got out as early as possible the next day.

Next step, a five hour bus ride to Mengla further south in China. This was to be our staging point for the attempt to hit Laos the next morning. However, since we arrived at Mengla rather earlier in the day and it too looked like a cess pool, we decided to grab another ride for the hour trip to Mohan, the Chinese border town. In America they have what Jennifer and I call death vans, fifteen passenger vans that have a nasty tendency to roll over and kill everyone on board. In China they have these except it's about half as long, but they still put fifteen people in it. I flagged one of these and we were off.

Mohan probably had about 200 people living there, but it was clear that it has bright hopes for the future. Money is coming in from somewhere as they've paved their one road, begun puttin in sidewalks and remodelling all of the shops. We checked into a rather basic hotel that only had power at night (like the entire town) and was about 100 feet from the border. That evening we went to a local noodle shop for food. Thank the traveling gods for this.

Although we have had some really good experiences in China, and even a few of these involved people, for the most part, China was a disappointment because we found so few people to be friendly. Thanks to this little border town, in the middle of nowhere, China redeemed itself.

All of the workers tried frantically to find the scrap of paper with English food selections on it. I tried to go back to the kitchen and point at what we wanted, but this only confused them. We eventually had some very good food sent our way and the cook sat by us to practice his English. When a fish flopped out of the kitchen and into the dining room we had an excellent chance for practice. A girl of about six and a boy of around four were playing out front. They took turns yelling, "Hello!" and "Sabaidii!" (the Lao greeting) at us. After watching them play for a while, I pulled out a Matchbox car and gave it to the girl and a bouncy rubber ball for the boy. We were now the most popular foreigners that Mohan had ever known.

For the next hour or so we watched the kids run around, screaming in delight as they played with the toys. The adults were nearly as interested in the toys as the kids and everyone in town made a point to come by and watch. I taught the girl the word "car" and the cook asked me if it was an American car. To his delight it was and we heard him tell others, "U.S. car." We bounced the ball around and the boy ran everywhere chasing it. We taught them some more words and Jennifer had a good game of trading funny faces with the boy. Suddenly, the Chinese people stopped being the frowning masses of people we had seen for three weeks and became two giggling little children and their relatives. Thank you, Mohan.

One quick side note on China. I had planned to write an entire entry on my thoughts on our time in China. However, I decided that even if I wrote about the positive experiences we had, it would come off sounding too negative because that is always easier to write about and what people latch on to. I decided I would just keep most of my thoughts to myself. What I will say is that I believe China is poised to be the dominate world power of this century, (in fact, if you ask many Chinese they'd probably say they're the world power right now) but I think unless there are some fundamental changes in their culture they're ripe for a social, economic, environmental and health disaster. Most of these problems are the result of poor management by their government. Watch for significant changes in China's policies in the near future or be prepared for an uprising. You can't have 90% of your population be farmers, most of them living in poverty, and expect to become a world leader. Okay...end of my soapbox rant.

Back on to the endless travel. I'll describe how our Lao border crossing went as a few people are reading that might be planning on doing the same in the near future. We walked from our hotel to Chinese immigration and filled out a simple form. You must push your way to the front using your superior American size and hand over your passport. The Chinese do not believe in lines. A few glances and a stamp and you're done in China. Walk past the checkpoint, showing your passport again, and there are trucks waiting to take you the 3km to the Laos checkpoint. Once in Laos you repeat the same basic thing and walk on to Bo(r)ton, a crappy Lao border town. (Note: Until recently the Lao government banned the letter "R" for reasons to complicated to understand. The forbidden letter is now allowed in use again so you will see places listed different than your guidebook.) Now just find a truck or bus heading to wherever you want to go and wait. You wait because the bus or truck will not leave until full. If that means two hours, then you'd better find a comfy rock to sit on.

We crammed on board a bus headed to Udom Xai, a Lao transport hub in the North. Four uncomfortable hours later and we were there. Originally, we thought we'd stay a day in Udom Xai to relax, but all this one day and move stuff really annoys us. We prefer to find a nice place and stay for several days rather than do a place a day. So we decided to press on to Luang Prabang, a beautiful former capital of Laos. We found a bus to where we wanted to go and paid the 60,000 kip price...that's about $6. We were first directed to a Toyota minivan and our bags were loaded and we were told we'd leave in a few hours, when it was full. After about a half hour of resting and drinking Cokes, our driver found us and told us to hurry we had to get on a big bus leaving right now. It was going somewhere else, but would drop us off. In Southeast Asia, buses will always stop for anyone who flags them down, even if completely full. This includes the "VIP" bus that we were on. We managed to get a seat, others were sitting on plastic stools in the aisle, next to a couple of old men in army uniforms traveling with their chicken. One old guy in particular took a liking to Jennifer and stared at her for the entire trip. Our bus apparently entered some sort of time warp as the trip seemed to last about eight days.

Anyway...to make a long story only medium length...we're in Luang Prabang. The small city is known for its beautiful temples, or wats, scattered throughout town and the many buddhist monks who live in them. As Laos was once a French colony, there are many excellent bakeries and remnants of French architecture to be found.

It's only our first day here so I can't report too much yet. It seems very nice so far. The Lao people appear to be friendly and it is quite laid back, although very hot and humid. Laos is a country with an interesting history (that will be a future article) and almost total lack of big name attractions. Still, I've heard from many people that it is their favorite place in Asia due to the relaxing way of life. We're more than willing to partake of that.

-- Shawn