The worst day...so far!

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We debated whether or not to include this story on our blog...

...so excited about extending our trip in Asia we decided that if we could get a Vietnam visa in Pakse then we'd head to Danang, Hoi An and Saigon.  We knew that we'd need pre-arranged visas for Vitenam but our guide (the very nice man from Green Discovery who took us on a fab jungle trek) didn't have the forms we needed but assured us that we could sort it all out at the border and that he'd sent people to Vietnam many times before without visas.  We asked him several times "Are you sure??" "yes, yes, yes" was the reply.  So trusting he knew better than us and thinking that the book and web sites we'd read were perhaps out of date, we decided to go for it.

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We set off to Vietnam early on our "VIP" bus.  Although "chicken" bus would be a better description, between the feathers and fowl looks from our fellow (mainly Vietnamese) passangers the signs were not good.  I hope the Vietnamese in Vietnam are not as rude as those on our bus or there is little hope for that country.  Eight hours of window wars (no air con on this VIP), smoking and elbow jabbing we were at the Laos border...here we were laughed at for not having a visa and told that we need to take a 6 hour bus journey in the opposite direction to arrange a visa!!

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We stepped into Vietnam only momentarily to retreive our bags from the bus and avoid eye contact with our new friends onboard.

We sat debating what to do stuck at the border since there were apparently no buses or guesthouses nearby... with our backpacks on we walked away, heads down, ready to cry... then a bus passed through the border with a woman hanging out the door waving and yelling "Pakse! Pakse!"  It was almost magical!  They let us jump on the bus and there the magic stopped.  The bus wasn't really a passenger bus more of a freight bus...full to the top (really) with rice bags, onions, sugar, cakes,, garlic, biscuits...anything you could buy from the market really.  We climbed over the rice bags to our seats...windows open, feet tucked up by our chins and we were off again...although only round the corner.  We had a two hour wait, then many other stops along the way (including one to change a flat tyre).  Fifteen hours later we ground back in Pakse...so releaved we jumped off our hot, claustrophic bus only to find the rest of the passengers (about 10 of them) and the driver cuddling back down to sleep for two hours when the curfew was over!!! Mental!  Our bus driver even climbed up to sleep on the roof (which was also piled high with stuff) to sleep with fresh air!

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Visa or no visa we decided that Vitenam was not meant to be... Cambodia here we come!!