Waking up, its raining and I need to pee.. i get off the bus after pinching some umbrella and pee at the side of the bus.. Good mooorning Veitnam!
We have to walk across the boarder and get our exit stamps outta Laos, and there is alot of confusion.. After waiting for awhile a manage to get the guys attension, flash him a smile which works a treat and he takes it off me.. Still takes fooorever to get a stamp, but its done and I just need to get back on the bus, I'm high on valium and I'm falling asleep so I scoot off to find the arrival desk for Vietnam
There isn't one.. Well not close by- apparantly 1km down the road, we walk for a bit, but its raining and seems crazy that they'd make us walk down the road, so we wait for the bus.. Get back on, drive down the road, through some craaazy mud (thankgod we didn't walk!) and we arrive at the Veitnam boarder to chaos... So many people, so many buses I'm cold and wet and hope its not gona take too long..
My mouth feels like arse and tastes worse, I grab my toothbrush and decided to brush my teeth here- Can't have a shower so the least I can do to feel fresh is to brush my teeth, haha.. Stijn joins me and we're both standing at the boarder brushing our teeth at some broken sink, outside freezing cold and to top off this bizzare moment its raining... WELCOME TO NAAAM!
We get to the desk after a small walk.. Not much of a que but we have to pay $1 for the stamp?! Poor Dom's handing out more $$ as no-one expected to be paying for the stamp.. We had over the passports and wait.
UURRRM why is our bus unloading our luggage at the side of the road, and then driving off? We all look at each other confused and worried that we're moving buses, to a smaller one! aargh don't say that! I jump back on the bus with Frans cos i left all my stuff out on my seat and get my main bag- I'm guessing that its like when I did the cross to Malaysia on the train- you gotta take your luggage and be responsible for it.. Some ones talking about x-raying?!
Get my passport back.. Grab my bag, walk down, back on the same bus!? no x-ray?! and get comfy again.. What a drama! haha, WELCOME TO NAAAAAAAM biiiitchez haha!
After a snooze we stop for lunch around 1pm and thankfully we can use kip- get some spring rolls and rice which was nice, but needed some sauce and we're off again, back to my snoooozzzzze
We get into Hanoi around 8pm, suppost to be 5, but 8 isn't too bad.. The boys were sitting close to a group of American's who seem pretty cool and we all jump in a cab back to our hostel with them..
But I mean, are these clown taxi's? Like seriously.. 4of us, luggage with a non exsisting boot, how is this gona work?! But it does, somehow?! lol
The taxi metre is jumping up and its obviously ripping us off on purpose, 500,000 for a 10min ride isn't right at all... so we just keep an eye on it.. the other cab is somewhere close to 600,000 which I think is around $50 (AUD) We get the the road of the hostel (not the actual hostel, still gotta walk?) and we've worked out that its something like 10,000 per km.. So we work out what that is and tell the driver we're not paying your 600,000dong but obviously they have no idea what we're saying and I tell the guys to just put the money in the car and walk off, what can they do?! We do that and start walking, but Matt is grabbed by one of them and its a bit confusing.. Not feeling threatened though.. WE manage to just get Matt free, drop the money in the car, and walk.. They don't walk after us nothing! What can they do against 8people?!
We can't find the hostel at first and end up walking too far, but we do eventually.. They don't have space in our 1 for the other group of 4, but they have a room with 2 double beds in and our original booking with 4 beds in the dorm- I want dorm, so I'm staying here.. Need my space, really not keen to share a bed..
Dom, Hannah, Bini & I take the dorm- Frans, Stijn, Nancy and Matt take the beds across the road which is part of our hostel anyway- free beers between 6-7, free brekkie, hot shower, internet.. Its not bad and I bagsy a bottom bunk, yeeeeeeeeeh buuuuddy.. We arrange with the others to meet up in a bit for food. Gotta sort out my bag, its wet and muddy and everything in the bottom compartment is soaked as smells of damp :(
We meet the others, and we head off for some food and a ATM.. En route however we notice a scoot swerving towards us and a mob of about 50 people chasing after him, with knifes and a ladel (haha?) totally mayhem and alarming to say the least! Turns out the guy had stole something from someone- note to self, don't piss off the locals!
We find a place for some food and its really nice, not spicy though!:( By th end of the meal the guys wana get drunk, but Hannah, Matt and I just wana go bed, so we head back. Can't get into our hostel? urrrm?? So we walk to the other one, which apparently is just round the corner?? Can't find it.. But we do bump into the boys who tell us there's a bell.... doh! We get back, see the bell and get to bed, hahaha!
