Sometimes it is amazing how fast one can feel alright again. Sitting in Savannahketh on my hotel-bed, showered and shaved for the first time in 3 days and having both a Pizza and some Martini Bianci intus, I feel quite human and civilized again.

Only 6 hours ago, I was once again playing in the mud. I had taken a short-cut through the Laos Mountains in order to get South faster. Vietnam had once again denied access – why and how will follow – and my last hope is a border-crossing called Lao-Bao some 1000km further South. 

Taking the mountain route had been both a good and a bad idea: the views were amazing, people perplex when they saw me coming and the setting was generally very Asian. However, the street stopped being paved after the first 10km, got very narrow and steep after 20km und finally became muddy after 30km and for the next 50km. This was when I started wondering if I would get stuck once again. I thought: “I really do not have the energy for this – enough off-roading for this year!” And “I should have stopped for breakfast”.

I did not get stuck. But it was close enough. The one moment I really cursed was when water was swapping into my open driver’s side window – I had forgotten to close it when crossing the river… I did not only curse because I got wet legs, I was also upset with the river itself: it had looked quite shallow – maybe 50cm deep, and now the water was standing level with the top-end of my steering wheel (that would be 1.5 metres above ground in a slightly modified Land-Cruiser).

I really got shaky legs – this was the deepest river I had ever crossed by car… However, there was not much current and the Toyota steadily made its way – and the windows closed fast enough not to set the whole car under water. However, next time I will walk through the river first – like every half-way serious off-road magazin is suggesting to do before heading into anything larger than a cappuccino cup.

After 7 hours in the mountains I was exhausted – I still had a too close memory of my Cambodia adventure when we needed 2 days for 80km and got stuck 4 times. Luckily, the road got wider then and soon I reached the Mekong and the decently paved interstate towards Savannahketh.

But was has happened at the Laos-Vietnam border in Nan Tuk? Well, after 40 hours of waiting and volley-ball playing with the custom officers on duty, a fax from their provincial head-quarter arrived. It said that I would have to come over personally to get the needed car permit for Vietnam. Fair enough: I returned back to Laos, stamped my passport and got my visa cancelled, took tooth-brush and money out of the car and walked back over the bridge towards Vietnam. There I would take a motorcycle for the first 25km, and the change to a night-bus to Vinh, the provincial capital. If everything worked out well, I could be back at the border by Saturday I thought.

When I got back to the Vietnamese custom building, the two officers I had spent most time with ran towards me. They had gotten another phone call – this time from Comrade Police President himself. His message was easy to understand: No permit unless it is issued directly in Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital. The police president did not want to have the responsibility for a Swiss traveller with car in his province. I had not known that I represented such a big danger.

Alright, no Vietnam for the moment. I was not even upset – this was one of the scenarios I had gotten through in my head while waiting for two days. 

The problem now was, that I had no visa to re-enter Laos – and there was no way to get a new visa right at this border. I was stuck. I could not go back to Laos and my car could not go to Vietnam. What to do?

I think, my shoulders must have hang pretty low, because one of the Viet custom officers came to me and told me that he would come over to the Laos side and explain the situation. I found this very nice indeed and gratefully accepted his offer.

And it worked. Now I have two “Cancelled” stamps in my passport: One for the visa and one to cancel the first “Cancelled” stamp. This came together with a letter from the custom officer in Laos explaining why my visa was still valid after all.

Ok, so far so good. But I was still not in Vietnam. Back on the road, I checked the map for short-cuts and there we are: In the mud once more.