This particular excerpt in my blog has the sole purpose of giving you an insider's (foreigner insider's) view into bus travel in Vietnam in general, and more specifically to Laos. I actually thoroughly enjoyed this slow, bumpy, unknown and uncomfortable ride, because after 5 weeks in Vietnam I came to a beautiful place of 'letting go' and 'being with what is' and such.
I left Vietnam from Hanoi on May 12th on a sleeper bus, that was determined to take anywhere from 18-24 hours, depending on who you spoke with- it was a mystery to all! The bus was predicted to leave town around 6pm, but with a 4:30 pick-up time from my hotel for some reason- I figured this was probably to pick up other passengers, and, this turned out to be partially true.
I spent my final day in Hanoi taking care of last minute loose-ends and errands, and also met Swedish photographer Daniel for lunch at a most excellent street-food booth for one final meeting, and booked myself a 1-hour Vietnamese aromatherapy massage, to get nice and flushed out and relaxed for the big bus ride, and also to undo all of the tension from all of the days of motorbiking, and just generally being in the big city. The massage was at 'SF Spa' which was a little pricier than your usual Vietnamese massage, (but still at least one quarter of the price of a massage in the states) but totally worth it- Vietnamese massage had so far not compared in any way with Thailand, for the similarly low price of $5-10 per massage, and this place was AWESOME.
I came back to my hotel at 3:50, thinking I would use the final 40 minutes before bus pick-up time to relax and do some emailing and stuff, but when I came back, Duc, the hotel manager-on-duty said 'Oh! I'll call them to pick you up now!' and I tried saying I preferred to just wait there, but just the same, the pick-up guy came at 4:10, and I was whisked away on a motorbike to about 3 blocks away, where I waited for the next hour and a half in a 'travel cafe' that was going through renovations, wondering if this was indeed the right place to be. Since nobody seemed to know anything and I had been rushed over here, I used the shower in the lobby to rinse off from the hot day! (All toilets in Vietnam also have a shower in them) I had a cup of tea, and suddenly at 5:30pm, after waiting with no word or time confirmation of anything, someone was telling me and the 2 other guys waiting to 'Hurry! Hurry!' because the minivan was here.
From there, we went around town picking up other people from various hotels and guesthouses, until there were 4 to 5 people per 3-person seat, and luggage piled up on people's laps and in the walkways. The reactions varied but mostly this young crew of English, Australian, Japanese and French were grumbling and complaining. I smiled, laughed, and shook my head with the Japanese guy next to me, as we continued to watch the large numbers approaching our van that seemed like an impossible number.
Next, we were dropped off outside by the side of the road somewhere, that turned out to be outside the bus station but a few hundred meters away. We stood around for ten minutes or so for what seemed like no reason at all, when I decided I might as well buy a bottle of water from the nearby stand. As soon as I decided to do this, suddenly it is 'We're going! Hurry! Now!' and luckily this sweet young French guy grabbed my bag for me as I finished my transition and ran to catch up.
We fill out some paperwork at the bus station and give our passport numbers, and finally we board the bus. Then, we sit on the bus after some confusion over which seats we were supposed to be in (sleeper seats/lounge chair things) and wait for some other unknown thing to take place until about 7:30pm. Finally, we left. We all wondered aloud to each other if this meant we would still get to Vientiane in Laos 24 hours after 6pm, or, 24 hours from the leaving time? Also unknown and mysterious.
The next few hours until everyone fell asleep, super loud Vietnamese pop music began playing, which, I was already used to and amused by from many other bus rides I had been on. The canadian girls next to me were tortured by this, and moaning and calling out in english to foreign and unlistening ears to 'turn it down', and again, I just laughed. Next, the sound turned into the soundtrack of the Kung Fu movies that were shown, which were AWESOME, and subtitled in English, and dubbed in Vietnamese (I think.)
During the night, the bus stopped a number of times while we all slept. When we awoke in the morning at 6:30am with our arrival to the Vietnam-Laos border to get our Visas, there were a bunch of large boxes with computers and printers in the back bed/seat area, and the purpose of the late-night-early-morning stops was a little bit clearer. After our stop at the Visa office, one English guy found his bed/seat taken by yet another box. :)
The visa office was seemingly in the middle of nowhere, and involved stopping in and out of 3 or 4 windows for various purposes. Fried bananas and cookies could be purchased at nearby stops, and there was a pay toilet with the walls broken and collapsed in by a small avalanche of the muddy hill behind/above it. For this privilege I paid 2,000 dong (only a small fraction of a dollar, but still funny!)
About four hours later, we stopped for the first time for real food. There were two small restaurants right next to each other, and we all stumbled off the bus into one. We sat at a small table and waited. We watched the table next to us (Laos people) getting orders taken, and then getting served. We tried waving down a staff person, but nothing. With a few words and grumbles, we decided as a group to go right next door, a restaurant separated from this one only by part of a cement wall, and a large window without a pane. It was almost like being in the same room! This place was great- it was buffet-style, and they loaded our plates up with tasty local Vietnamese food with much variety for 5,000Kip- less than $1. For some of my fellow bus-riders, I ate the extra 'weird' meats (pork) and eggs they had on their plates, in exchange for my rice and tofu.
We made it through to the other side, and with a few more stops along the way, we arrived in Vientiane, the capital city of Laos, at about 3:30pm! Only 19 hours! Hooray! We were all tired and stiff, but happily pleased and surprised.
I booked myself a dorm bed at the Mixay Guesthouse along with everyone else on my bus for $5 a night, and went in search of the night market with an English guy named Kevin who I met on the bus. We searched and searched but had trouble finding it as many streets have no names, or at least no signage marking them .. . when we finally found it we were happy and walked through, and played a few little market games to win a prize from a 10-year old boy. I won a little chocolate treat and gave it to Kevin. Next we discovered that there are no containers or dishes or chopsticks at the night market, as most locals just come and buy the food to go. We decided to come back the next night with the proper cutlery, and to go back to a Mekong River-side restaurant selling whole fish on the grill.
It was a tasty and quiet night, and I went to bed rather early, not even knowing if when or if I was leaving the next day for Luang Probang. I decided to sleep on it and see how I felt in the morning.
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