Vietnam to Laos

Well, we had our longest bus ride yet from Hanoi to Vientiane--22 hours!! They weren't the most enjoyable hours...the bus was overfilled because the last 2 rows were filled with about 50 cases of barley tea. We were convinced they were probably drugs that we were assisting in smuggling to Laos, because why would you want to bring so much barley tea to Laos? The people operating our bus were actually quite unpleasant which made the ride a bit worse as well. We were on a sitting bus instead of a sleeping one to save money, so it was a pretty tight fit, and about halfway in started to smell quite a bit. One of the people working for the bus was flirting with 2 girls sitting in front of us, and reached over them to lean their seats ALL the way back onto us, so Jason and I had very little space for most of the ride. We arrived at the Laos border about 2 hours before it opened, so we had to sit on the bus and wait. They turned it off including the air, and since Jason and I were in the back it became almost suffocating with so many people and no air! Finally the border opened and we left Vietnam without any problems, but getting into Laos was a bit more challenging. Jason and I felt very preapred: we had our money ready in US Dollars (they prefer that), we had our passport sized photos, we had pens—lots of other people were scrambling around to come up with enough money or didn’t have everything they needed. We filled out the visa applications and were one of the first people to turn our paperwork in. They processed them and told us it would be $72 for our 2 visas. We handed them the 4 $20 bills we had, and watched as they examined each one carefully, and handed 2 of them back. One had a small ink stain, and the other had a little tear at the top of the center that happens when they’ve been used and folded. We told him we didn’t have any other money, were from the U.S., and the money was certainly legitimate. They said they couldn’t take them. There was a money exchange in the same building so Jason brought our 20’s to them and asked for 10s in return. He accepted one of them, but not the other. So we had $60 for our $72 visas, and no way to get any other money. We asked them what we should do and their suggestion was to go to the ATM 30 km inside of Laos….obviously if we could get into Laos we wouldn’t have a problem! While this is going on almost everyone else has gotten through, with the exception of some people from Chile, Germany, and Sweden. Each had separately called the Laos embassy before coming and were told they could get transit visas for 2 weeks for free, so they had no money to pay for their visas. They ended up having quite the confrontation with the people at the border crossing who said it wasn’t true and they must pay. They refused to call their embassy to check, and began yelling at the people and demanding their passports. And hour and a half later they were able to borrow money and get through, and we found another American who traded us one of her $20s and we got through. When he handed me $8 in change the $1 bills were all very dirty, so I demanded he give me clean ones instead! It felt like a tiny piece of redemption. It wasn’t the best first impression of Laos, but things got much better after we arrived in Vientiane!

Getting off the bus was wonderful, and we found a place to stay right by the Mekong River. We walked around and both noticed how quiet it is—there isn’t constant honking and yelling! People drive normally, crossing the street is easy, and everyone seems so laid back. They have good cheap beer and food and everyone we’ve met has been wonderful so far. We are spending a few days here recovering from the crazy bus ride and taking care of some finances and laundry. We don’t plan to spend the full month here, so we should be able to take our time and not have to worry about visas expiring. In a couple of days we’ll take the bus to Vang Vieng, and there we get to go tubing down the Mekong, and possibly rock climbing! We’re excited to get to check out a new country for the next few weeks.