Mengla to Louang Namtha

"Sabadi" - "Hello" Welcome to Laos. Today was the day we would finally leave China. We got up nice and early and jumped on the bus to Louang Namtha. It took about an hour to get to the border which was not too busy. After getting our exit stamp from China we drove over no-mans land to the Laos side. We got our visas checked and stamped and then got on the bus again. There were landslides all over the roads. Laos and southern China have had some serious rainfall over the last month. In some places the road was in front had completely collapsed on one side. Very scary!! We got stopped at a checkpoint and the Laos authorities were not pleased with the electrical goods the Chinese passengers had brought with them on the bus. Something to do with customs I guess. So they forced one Chinese guy to pay a bribe of some sort and we continued on our way. After another hour or so and a few more landslides, we arrived in Louang Namtha. A very quiet but pleasant town of 40,000 people with most amnities situated on the main road in and out of town. We found a great hostel with air conditioning and satellite TV and freshened up. We ate some very tasty Laos currys and drank some more of the delicious Beer Laos. We were lookong forward to a well deserved rest!