Vientiane, Laos to Hue, Vietnam in 17 hours

It turns out that it's not that easy getting out of Laos. No matter which way you look at it, it seems to involve some sort of ridiculously long bus trip. Well, either that or buying two adorable old Minsk motorcycles for $350 with all the appropriate paperwork to make it into Vietnam. Sounds pretty good ? Only problem with that plan is that neither of us can drive these little beauties so back to the bus...

This was our longest bus trip yet and was only bearable thanks to our brand new inflatable neck pillows and the abundance of empty seats around us. On the other hand, it was one hell of a bumpy ride and the floor at our feet was quickly occupied by sleepy vietnamese people as soon as the night fell, including one who borrowed (without asking) Chris' fleece jumper to use, first as a pillow and later, as a blanket. I suspect he drooled on it a bit.

We arrived at the border at 5am and were made to wait for two hours until the crossing opening time. In that time, I enjoyed a bitter green tea, a bunch of Vietnamese men making advances to me and finally a swift case of extortion by a fraudulent wannabee border official who demanded all of our passports, loaded with a small sum of cash and collected a hefty little bundle. The only thing that made it better is that Vietnamese nationals were expected to do the same.

The actual border crossing was fine although we did notice that all the locals had reloaded their passports, maybe to get through quicker, that waiting in line is not a national past-time and that the bus driver smuggled countless boxes of pharmaceutical goods into the back of our bus.
The remainder of the trip was nothing remarkable and we arrived in Hue around 11am.