Project L.O.V.E

When i first joined LDP, the first project that attracted my attention was Project L.O.V.E. It gave me an opportunity to do OCIP, to travel with friends and do something i usually wont do myself.

The journey was one of insane distance, and long duration. The trip lasted 14 days, of which around 3 days is taken up for travelling from place to place. Many things happened, and this made it an even more amazing trip.

Which route did we take?

We first took a jet star 3hr flight from S'pore to Ho Chi Minh city, followed by a 2hr local flight to Hanoi. This is followed by a 5hr train journey to Vinh, which we took a 8hr bus ride to the Vietnam-Laos border. From there, we took minivans to our final destination of Nonghet, Laos.

We stayed 10 days in Nonghet and took a 16 hour bus ride to Vientiane. Stayed 2 days in Vientiane, crossed the Laos-Thailand border to Nongkhai train station and took a 12 hour train to Bangkok and stayed 1 day there. I would have wished to stay longer in Bangkok, but we had a great time together nonetheless. Probably, the shorter the time spent, the more precious.

Vietnam

When the plane landed in Ho chi Minh, it was rather hot, around 26 degrees. We started to sweat the moment we got out of the airport. This was made worse by the sudden flight cancellation the night before by Jetstar. Fortunately, we were able to book another flight by Air Mekong, which was really luxurious by any standards. By doing so, we managed to escape many of the possible inconvenience caused by change in plans.

It was the first time i sat a bombardier plane, i had only ever sat boeing and airbus planes. The 2 x 2 arrangement was really comfy, the service and food was good. It has been eos since i had to take a bus or walked the tarmac to the plane as it was too small for the aerobridge. It was a totally refreshing experience.

I thought that Hanoi being the capital of Vietnam would be more developed than Ho Chi Minh. To my surprise, Hanoi was similar to Vientiane in my opinion. The buildings are short and consisted mostly of industries. The air was polluted and haze thick.

"The time is ##:## and the weather is light winds and the temp is 12 degc ..." WTH? HUH? 12 DEG? How the HELL did it drop from 28 to 12 deg within such a short distance? We were flying through thick clouds and the plane probably landed with 100m visibility. The fog and haze was horrible. Anyways, we were ill-prepared for the low temperatures that we are about the experience. It dropped to around 8 deg when the sun went down. I took out all of my thickest jackets during then and still shivered in the cold.

A vietnamese scholar who was a friend of the committee was there to lias and helped us around. He treated us to some street food, which was vermicelli with duck meat. It was cheap and good, something to warm us up in the cold weather.

We moved on to riding the train. It was a 6 person sleeper compartment which was a squeeze in my opinion. We were sleeping perpendicular to the direction of travel, but i was able to sleep nonetheless. When we reached vinh, it was 4am in the morning and we looked for food, eating a 20000 dong ($1.3) chicken porridge. At 6am, we boarded the bus and started the journey to Laos.

We were stuck at the vietnam border for quite long as they had problems understanding our passport with english stating sex as F & M. Finally after a long time, we passed. With the bus leaving our luggage behind at the laos border as we took too long.

Laos

Visa application was troublesome at the Laos border but we got through anyways. The minivans brought us to our guesthouse of the the next 10 days.

We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the guesthouse. We had rooms with beds and quilt blankets. However, the blanket is not thick enough and the wind keeps blowing the cold wind outside into the room. Limited water supply causes us not to have water sometimes. Bathing in the cold room despite having hot water is a very cold affair. Its almost impossible not to shiver. There are also no heaters available.

The food prepared for our meals is alot and quite good. However, the chicken parts were quite difficult for me to eat. They were bony, had little meat and were tough to bite. I wonder why people like kampung chicken when they had tough meat, usually roosters instead of the tender juicy fat hens that we eat. Our menu was later changed to daily similar breakfast, lunch and dinner menus.

The project was quite a success. We built a multi-purpose court, taught in 4 primary schools colours and basic english. We also distributed water storage containers to 2 villagers. 10 days is a long time, but it is also a short time. The time spent there was very nostalgic and unforgettable. We had campfire, food exchange (visited the market many times), and finally a farewell dinner.

At the end of 10 days, we started the 16 hours bus journey to Vientians.
Phonsavan was by right a 2.5 hr journey, but the bus took 5! This was due to them picking up people along the way. What surprised me most was that they provided plastic seats when the bus was already full! The journey was long but the road was generally smooth. It was winding though, and usually children cannot stand such trips and develop motion sickness. This was when the boy in front of me started to feel like vomiting. He just sticked his head out of the bus window and vomitted outside!

We finally reached the hotel in the morning 6am. There were some complications, but we still got the room anyway. We now have an unlimited supply of hot water! However, the volume flow rate cannot be controlled and it wasn't really hot enough -_-! Spent the next 2 days exploring Vientiane, knew it like the back of my palm and it's just like clark quay. Mainly for food and probably some massage.

We were provided a free bus to the laos border, which was actually a lorry-ttuk tuk. Surprising how it could fit all of us, but the ride was exciting nonetheless. We had to pay 10k kip as a crossing fee, and took a train across the Laos-Thailand border. It was fun taking photos with the train.