Kunming, Yunnan to somewhere in Laos

I arrived in Kunming at around 7pm on friday evening. My flights were uneventful with one exception, a little boy that would stop crying long enough to be baffled every time I turned around to look at him. Unfortunately his confusion would wear off after a few minutes and he would go back to crying.

Saturday morning I bought my ticket to Laos after David and I picked up Rabecca and Lucie at the train station. It was so early it was still dark and I think that this had something to do with why I did not ask more questions when I bought my ticket. Also, according to Lonely Planet, a bus that went across the border did not exsist. These two factors ended in the purchasing of a ticket on a sleeper bus to Laos that was less than $50 and would take two days (that was as specific as the lady behind the desk could go).

I spent the day with the three metioned above at a so called hot springs. It was amazing. I think that the most relaxing thing that a person could do is to lay around in spas all day, but we did so much more. We layed around in mint, rose, strawberry, orange, or coconut milk scented spas all day and ate ice cream. After we tired of that (some 4 and a half hours later) we went for a brief swim, had our dead skin scrubbed off, and had an oil massage. It was an amaxingly lazy day.

My bus was schedualed to leave at 6:30 on Sunday afternoon, so I had the day on Kunming. David showed me around, taking me to bookstores, markets, and parks. Kunming is a vibrant and beautiful city. Also, the pollution in Kunming is very low so I actually saw the sky and it was a wonderful blue. I even searched out a moutain bike shop and was surprised to find that it had real mountian bikes, parts, and accesories. All in all, I would be happy if Jason and I ended up licing in Kunming for a while, which we might end up doing. (we are not 100% sure yet, but we do know that we will not be living in Haerbin).

It was rush hour, so I left for my bus at 5:15 to ensure I made it to the station early. After arriving at the station I was pointed to my bus quickly and the driver gave me the front, top bunk just behind him. It was a double, which was good because I had to lay diagonally to get close to streaching out. I quickly discovered that niether of the drivers spoke any english and began putting together important sentences in my head. Eamples include: "How long are we stopped for?" "I have to go", and more importantly, "Where am I going to?"

I knew that I was going to Laos and I knew that there is only one border crossing between China and Laos. That was it though. My original plan was to get just across the border and faff my way through some of the small towns eventually ending up in Luang Prabang near the end of the week. My plans changed.

After falling asleep to chinese films, I woke up to find that we were pulling into a city. (Of course it would be too much to ask for a road sign saying which one) It was just after 6 in the morning and the majority of the bus got off for the pit stop. I did the same and noticed that many of them did not come back quickly as they had at other stops. (ususally lasting only a few minutes and not long enough for the driver to bother to shut off the bus. Even though he was also taking a pit stop.) I asked the driver where we were and to my amazement we were in a town very close to the border. At this point I still did not know where my final destination was but I began to talk to the driver to find out. Unfortunaelty most of the words that he used to answer my questions were new to me. A nice chinese guy came along soon and translated a bit for me. I learned two things from him. First, I held a ticket that took me all the way through to Luang Prabang. Second, Luang Prabang sounds nothing like Luang Prabang in Chinese.

At the border a few fellow travelers got on making the ratio of foriegners to chinese more than just me. The rest of the trip took about 13 hours. The border crossing was about two of those since we had to go through the chinese side, the laos side, customs (another 15km down the road), and a random checkpoint (about half way to luang prabang). After that I got to lay on my bed and enjoy scenery as it bumped by. The roads were bad on the laos side, but it was okay because we went slower and the foliage was lush and there were tons of things to look at.

I have been in Luang Prabang for two days now and it is pretty nice. I will be here for at least one more day, but maybe two.