Hanoi

What a journey. That’s about all I can say. I am now in Hanoi, we made it here, found Danthemanstan via email, and had a delightful dinner at a restaurant that is located in a restored old house. The process of getting here was quite the experience though. All in all, the trip took 26 hours from when we were picked up at our hotel to the time we arrived at the bus station here in Hanoi. Our bus was probably moving for only 13 or 14 hours of the trip. This isn’t exactly what I would consider an efficient ratio when traveling.

The trip got off to what I later realized was a very typical start. We got on a mini-bus because it showed up to where we were, and the driver said “bus to Hanoi?” This took us to a very shady looking bus barn/repair shop where we loaded a bus. One of the staff members actually said that he wanted the foreigners to sit in the back because we would be “better protected in a crash.” Apparently it’s okay for the Lao to die in a crash, but not the tourists. Needless to say, such a warning doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in the safety of the journey. We then went to the main bus station, where we waited (on and off the bus) for three hours before we actually left. Why we couldn’t have just been told to be at the bus station at that time, instead of wasting four hours going to the edge of town, is simply beyond me. The rest of the trip followed this pattern: frequent, long, unexplained stops. Each stop was long enough for a slow, sit down dinner, which of course wasn’t what any of the passengers were looking for. My trip was made even less enjoyable by the two men in front of me. They were two older European men, one a Swede and the other I think Italian. Not only did they lean their seats all the way back almost the entire ride, but also both had bad body odor (the Swede was just plain repugnant). I couldn’t ever get comfortable enough to gain much sleep, but so is life on the Viang Chan-Hanoi bus route. I chatted with a very nice Irish couple that was almost done wrapping up a three-continent, seven-month world tour.

The main event of the trip was the border crossing. It was an absolute mess. This occurred between 6:45 and 10:00 AM. Yes, it took more than three hours. The Lao side wasn’t bad, just quite odd. I honestly couldn’t believe it when we entered the building, but candles lit the entire building. I don’t know how all the passports, forms, or money being exchanged didn’t catch on fire, (as like China, lines don’t exist, just pushy mobs). Now, the lack of electricity (or use of it) is made even more odd by the fact that hydroelectric power is a huge industry in Laos, and counts among its biggest exports. But we got the stamps in a relatively quick manner, after paying the weekend fee, which apparently only applies to foreigners. The Vietnamese side was another story. Apparently the bus company doesn’t really care if the border isn’t open when the bus gets to the border (I guess it fits with its ‘inefficiency’ policy). So we waited almost two hours for the Vietnamese border office to open, and by then there were four or five busloads of people waiting to get their passports stamped. As a result, it took quite awhile to make our way to the front of the mob. We slipped some money into our passports (because everyone else did, and the guidebook said a “stamp fee” was common) but I’m not really sure if it was necessary, or even did any good. So go ‘official’ processes in Vietnam. Once across the border though, our trip picked up speed and we did most of the 13 hours of driving. The trip was quite the experience, but not one I am looking to repeat any time soon. I certainly wouldn’t give it anything close to a thumbs up, but it certainly broadened my horizons, which is always a good thing.