The bus ticket to Yunnan came with a free pickup from the hotel to the "bus station". At 9pm, the Laotian tuk-tuk driver came around to take me, on road with no street lights, to a small hotel right in the middle of nowhere.
Turns out its a hotel run by Chinese. And it doubles up as the bus stop for the Vientianne to Kunming. It also provides public toilet, a small kiosk selling prepaid topup cards and seasickness medicine, and 2 billiard tables.
There were another 3 guys waiting for the bus, all Chinese. Scheduled for 11pm, the bus makes its appearance slightly past midnight. The digital clock on the bus has already been set to China time. As I make myself comfortable on my narrow "bed" on the bus, the other passengers (some probably set out from Vientianne) make their rush to the toilet.
I tried to get some sleep before daybreak. The Chinese driver seems to be going much faster than the Laotian one doing the Vientiane-Luang Prabang trip. I tried not to think of how narrow the road is, all how deep the ravine is. Actually, in the morning, when we got the chance to leave the bus for a little stretching, it turns out the road here is not as narrow as the one from Vientiane to Luang Prabang.
And it's good to know the bus is under divine protection.
But it does look like they are still under construction, which explain all the potholes that jolted me out of my sleep.
Before 8am, it looks like we are rolling into Boten, the border town on Lao side.
It was long before we are let off the bus to go through the immigration formalities, with the bus leaving to meet us later on the Chinese side, the town of Mohan.
The Lao immigration checkpoint, with the bigger Chinese checkpoint in the background.
Queue? What queue?
The elephant welcomes you to China.
A short walk to the much grander Chinese checkpoint, leaving no doubt as to who's the big daddy.
The checkpoint complex leads out to the ASEAN Boulevard
It is a stretch of hotels, restaurants and shops, sellings anything from Thai fruits to motor parts.
It looks like there is a market here for tranvestites, but I may be mistaken.
We are now 800km from Vientianne, and another 734km to Kunming.
We were given some time to wander around Mohan and have our lunch. Once on the Chinese highway, you will notice the difference from the Laotian road.
While the Loatian road winds itself up and down slopes, the Chinese built bridges over valleys, and blasted tunnels through obstruction.
Destination: Jing Hong, the 'capital' city of Xishuangbana.
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