March 3rd – Day 25 – Luang Prabang, Laos to Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam

Today was one of the most marvellous driving days of the tour, with mile after mile of beautiful empty roads, twisting along through stunning scenery.

We left at 6.30am and as we drove out of the town we past lines of monks walking along the road with their bowls in which locals dropped food.



We drove about 35kms to a village on the Mekong where we took a small boat across the river to see a cave which has hundreds of Buddhas. It was a beautiful morning, with the sun rising over the river, it made for a very special trip.


As we drove on the road followed one of the Mekong tributaries. Many sections of the road had been washed away by the river, and there were numerous diversions and road works. At times it was quite difficult to negotiate our way through piles of rocks and horrendous drops to the river below. Much of the this part of the drive was reminiscent of our drive through eastern Tibet in 2004. It was a hazardous, but exciting drive, which included crossing a river on a ferry, which was powered by a small tug.

The last part of the drive to the border took us for 65 kms on the most atrocious track which had terrible potholes, ruts and diabolical dust. At times we had to ford small streams. Here is Bob Howells ploughing his way through the water.

All these hazards combined to make the 65kms seem twice as long!

The track was leading to a border control that has only recently been opened up to foreigners. We were amazed to see a modern customs building, in the middle of nowhere!Compared to most of Laos, the border buildings were palatial.

We cleared Laotian customs quite quickly and drove a couple of kilometres to the Vietnam control. They were very efficient and in a few minutes we were on our way to our hotel in Dien Bien Phu, the site of the defeat of the French in 1954 by the Viet Minh.

Unfortunately the hotel was not up to our usual expectations and could, at best, be given a one star rating. Adding to the general lack of exclusivity was the 'knocking shop' immediately behind the hotel which overlooked our car park! Young girls, scantily clad, called out to us as we unloaded our bags. I'm not sure if anyone took up their offers!