No More Vietnam

I finally made it to Phonsavan, Laos, this morning. What a trip. I bunch of us left Thursday night from Hanoi to Vinh, Vietnam at 7 PM. It was an overnight bus. I had already been on two but this was the worst and most oldest. We sat in the back and had to literally buckle ourselves in because when we hit bumps we were flying up into the air. So not only could we not stretch out all the way because the buses here don't cater to Westerners, we had to worry about not falling out and hitting our head on the floor while we were half asleep. But we made it to Vinh about 2:30 AM with only a few bruises and Ritz crackers crumbs all over my bag because they fell off the shelf and my legs squashed them. The bus dropped us off outside the Viet Laos hotel which had a sign saying ticketing office to Laos. Perfect! The lady wanted 350,000 Dong for a ticket. The guide book said 235,000 was standard. So we decided to walk around to see if anything else was open and hopefully find the bus station. Nothing was open and we did find the bus station but we found out later that it was a storage area and not for departing passengers. After awhile we decided to get tickets from the hotel for 310,000 a person. The bus was supposed to leave at 5:30 AM. We got a taxi to the bus station. Good thing because it was a different one. If we had decided to walk we would have been screwed. When we got there we found the bus but it was before 5 so we waited. About 5:30 the bus attendant awoke from his slumber inside the bus and informed us that he wouldn't be leaving until 9:15 in the evening! One of the guys I am with tried berating him but he didn't speak English. We happen to find a guard that could speak English and he came over and talked to the guy. First the guard said it wasn't a ticket. So we asked him about getting the police to come with us back to the hotel to get our money back. He said that we would have to get the Vinh PD not them because they only take care of situations in the bus station. About that time the receptionist from the hotel showed up. She talked to the bus driver and worked it out. She offered to let us come back to the hotel and stay for free until the bus left at 7 PM. It was after 6 AM by the time we got back. We slept until 1 PM. I was only working on about 6 hours of sleep in the last 48 because it was a friends birthday in the hostel Thursday night and I only slept a few hours on the bus to Vinh.

We managed to find some cheap food when we woke up and waited back at the hotel for the night receptionist to show up that evening. She was going to make sure we got on the bus. While we were waiting I saw a scene that I will never forget. I was standing in the door way and a rat ran in behind me into the next room. I jumped forward because it startled me. I looked into the other room and it was suffering from what looked like to be a seizure. That lasted about 5 minutes and then it got up and ran under the stairs. I'm not sure if it died or lived. The bus picked us up at 7 PM. We thought we might be the only ones because it was just one other guy and the four of us. But we traveled to Vinh University and picked up about 50 students going back to Laos. I knew at the point it was going to be a long night. We made about three other pick ups before heading out of town. There was a half a dozen or so people standing or sitting in the aisle. I couldn't believe it. Luckily for them, and Mohan, Espen, and I, we stopped to transfer the extras to an empty bus. Now we got our own seats. That made the trip a heck of a lot better. Unfortunately we listened to crappy Vietnamese music for a good three hours before they turned it off. We arrived at the border at 4 AM. It was closed. A lot of the kids got out and went outside. That was good because now I could stretch out across to the other seat. I got three hours more of sleep. The border was a breeze. The Vietnamese agents searched our bag but it was fine. The Laotian agents didn't hassle us either. Laos is a beautiful country so far and I cant wait to explore it more.

Vietnam is an up and coming country. Overall the people are really nice. The little kids are some of the cutest I have ever seen. They always seem to have a smile on their face. Every city I stopped in there was some kind of construction happening. It was anything from simple 3 story brick homes being built, to new sidewalks and water drainage pipes, to massive resorts. Being from a construction bloodline that is one of the things I enjoy about traveling. I love to see other cultures and peoples build things using their own methods mixed in with a little Western style. In the States we have laws where you have to wear this and wear that. I would say 95 percent or more of the workers wore sandals. A lot of the workers digging were women. I remember in Hoi An near my hotel where they were putting in a new storm sewer. Instead of using a jack hammer or even a 10 lb sledge hammer to brake away concrete, the workers were crouched down using a little 3 lb hammer breaking it away. It had to have taken ages to get rid of it all. But they do it. That is just the way things get done. It will be interesting to see how much the country has progressed if I ever return. Maybe some day I will. Gooooodddbbbyyyeee Vietnammmm! (Robin Williams voice)