The journey from Laos to Vietnam
- Renata
- 11 de nov. de 2016
- 5 min de leitura
After reading reports of Brazilian, French and English travellers, we were a bit concerned about the choice of going by bus to Hanoi.
It could be a hell’s trip. We were prepared psychologically for what it could be. The seats are a kind of bunk bed. We did everything to not stay in the seats underneath in the back of the bus, which had the bathroom in one side and a small window on the other. Besides having three seats next to each other at most of the buses.
What we read about this trip was people saying that:
- Tourists were put in the worst places (in the back)
- The bad smell because of the shoeless (everybody have to take the shoes off at the bus entrance and store in a bag)
- If someone was in the bathroom the smell would stay on the bus for a long time, from the reports that the bathroom was obstructed and that disgrace the bus
- The immigration police could ask for bribes or still there are fake boarders where people dress as immigration police to ask the money for the visa
After read things like those when you have to stay 24 hours inside a bus and even cross a border is not nice. However the airplane tickets were too expensive so we decided to face the challenge.
Once the visa was in our passports, we bought the tickets two days in advance.
We asked for the lady of the travel agency to stay on the top seats when she was confirming our places with the bus office. We also ask for her to write it down in the tickets and teach us to speak "up and in front" in their language. We have forgotten by now, but at the time it was very useful.
A "transfer" van picked us up in the hotel and takes all tourists to the bus station. They divide the tourists in the buses and really place them there in the back of the bus. The locals and other Asians were already inside the bus when we arrived.
In front of the bus they take the tickets, look at our face and put the number of the seat. I used the magic words "up in front, please" in their language and when they authorized us to enter, we’re relieved. We stayed in the upper seats therefore it was the last seats behind.
In our side there was a French girl living in Laos and that was her first night trip too. We talked a lot and we could see that we haven’t forgot how to speak French. It was a very enjoyable trip start.
We called this bus "the party bus": loud music and neon lights everywhere. After a certain time the music went down and just got a lit blue light.
The bus stopped at some restaurants on the way so no problems with bathroom, hungry or thirsty.
The French on my side left in a city in Laos and a man came to sit beside us.
The trip takes 24 hours because we have to get early on the border to stay "well placed". The both sides of the border open at 6am. So we were standing there 3pm to wake up at 6pm.We’re woken up by a man screaming that it was time to leave the bus. I tried to record some faces of the people on our bus, which is not easy. But it's always good to know who is on the same bus as we.
Everyone from the buses went in line in the immigration to exit Laos. It was cold and a light drizzle. I had a jacket, Jorge almost never feels cold and he was almost freezing. When we left the evening of Vientiane was one of more than 45 degrees heat, most did not think the cold existed in that part of the world.
The first thing we wanted to do was to exchange the last kips (Lao currency) we had. We were by the window of the currency exchange and the man told us that he wasn’t going to change now because we should give that to the police immigration!
The place is very confused, everyone crowding the windows and delivering passports. I couldn’t understand anything. Then we saw the little window for foreigners immigration. We went there with the other backpackers. We were eight people. After the mess to understand with queue we should go, we got our exit stamp without spending a penny with bribery. A girl who was making the trip for the 4th time said he didn’t care anymore and she always leave 1 dollar in the passport before delivering it...
After we exchanged our money for the currency of Vietnam.
When we exit the place, the bus was gone. There were so many buses that looked the same, a chaos. We’d memorized the bus number to not enter in the wrong one. It was very hard to find ours. We were trying to not panic and we were still freezing. Then we found some of the faces that we recognize and we kept close to them. The bus was there, few meters ahead; we ran and got inside the bus. Time to relax.
Then, the bus rode until the Vietnamese border control.
Again, everyone was out of the bus searching the right window. There was no queue, no rule, a completely mess. People who were smarter and stronger (or had the longest arm) won. We find again the little window for foreigners. We delivered our passports confidents that it will be like Laos. To our surprise, the officer asked for money. We say that we hadn’t, then he just closes and returns the passports. We tried about 4 times with other people and nothing. Only those who gave him money had the passport stamped. I was angry! The bus had passed and parked near us. They asked to take all the bags out for inspection, still, no stamps in our passports.
We went to the bus, took our backpacks off the bus and we went back to the window to try once again to have the entrance stamp in our passports. We gave up trying and we gave him a lot of notes that totalized around 1 Brazilian real (0,30 euros). The officer then gives us a smile and finally stamps our passports. A shame, not because of the money it was almost nothing, but by attitude.
Everyone goes back to the bus with bags and the right to enter in Vietnam.
The rest of the trip was as expected and we finally arrived safe to Hanoi. We were fortunate for nothing experience anything so bad like the reports we read.
After that experience we travel in Vietnam by bus without any concern.
* Travel accomplished on March/2016
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