Welcome to Laos

Pushing South from our Internet HQ of Jinghong (did anyone notice the new website ? ) we headed for the Laos border at Mengla. Overnighting on the Chinese side, we enjoyed our last Chinese dinner (for a while) and prepared for the day ahead which promised to bring the fun that crossing land borders brings.
Bumping along yet another 'broken' road (below a spanking new one being built) we made it to the Chinese departure offices and smoothly made our way across. Arriving at the Laos side it was a different story. The horizontal queueing that we thought the Chinese had perfected was on show here, leading to a very long delay in fighting our way to the window to get stamped into the country.
Once across we were very clearly in a different country. The Chinese made road aside, things were alot less populated, alot more laid back with very different farming on display.
We have camped out for the last few days in Luang Namtha, about 50kms from the border. This is a developing town with some guesthouses and trekking organisations popping up in recent years. The villages around the main town are all very reachable on motorbike. We scooted around today doing lots of waving and "Sabadi" ing to the kids who have great smiles as they run out of the houses. We are on the move tomorrow heading further South, stopping at a few smaller places before we hit the relative big smoke (and the crusty baguettes).