Our bus ride from Vientianne to Hanoi was 25 hours and it is safe to say we were dreading it. But actually in the end we all really enjoyed it. By the time we arrived none of us really wanted to leave our little sleepers. The only bit we didn't enjoy was the border crossing which was horrible. Again there was a lot of people pushing and shoving to get their passports stamped and a lot of hanging around with people coughing and spitting everywhere but we also had to walk from Laos to Vietnam and then wait for our bus on the other side. The walk wasn't too long, it took us about 10 minutes but there is just no direction or help from anyone. You just have to hope you're doing the right thing and going the right way. The place you walk through is like a deserted town and its all just very odd and stunk. The whole ordeal lasted about two hours until we could get back to the safety and comfort of our little cubby holes on the bus.
The bus had about 7 rows of three sleepers which were quite similar to sun loungers but squishier. It was all quite nice and because the bus wasn't full we could spread out quite nicely. We're now in Hanoi and our next big journey - down to Hue - is a night bus so we're hoping the experience will be a repeat performance and it won't be a one off.
