The wheels on the bus go round and round ...

I've made it to Viet Nam.  This is no little achievement, especially the bus route I took!

At 5p I reach the bus station in Savannaket and buy my ticket, then start my wait for the 10p train.  After a few hours I'm joined by some Swedish backpackers and then by a designer wearing Denmark couple.  A few minutes after 10p we board the bus, the majority are Western tourists, but there are a few Vietnamese.  A fight ensues whether smoking should be aloud on the bus, then the Denmark guy begins shouting - "You are stepping on $1,000!" as some guy tries to re-arrange the luggage on the back of the bus.  "There's a DVD player in there" he next shouts.  Is this guy for real?!  I curl up next to the window and shut my eyes.

We reach the border at 2am, then try to sleep until it opens at 7a.  A half an hour before it officially opens I and the rest of the group walk over to get in line.  Futile, since there was no line.  At 7a the border window opens and a mass of people surge to the windows and begin shoving passports, most containing a $1-3 bribe.  The workers carefully select the ones with the highest amounts first.  It took over an hour and a half for our passports to get stamped, half the group vehemently opposed giving a bribe, which made it pointless for everyone else to do since we will all be leaving at the same time.  Anyway, we made it across and easily entered Viet Nam.  After another hour on the bus we reached Dong Ha.  Everyone else was headed South, except me and the Danish couple.  Ugh, why them?!  The bus dropped us on a random street, now the next challenge - without a map, how do we find a bus/ train up to Hanoi?  I proceed to step into a mud puddle, slip, and scratch up my knee - ugh, guess that didn't help.  Anyway I got myself fixed up and proceed down the street with the Danes.  From what we can tell a bus leaves around 7p and stops at a number of cafes and hotels around the area.  Then a bus pulls up and the driver shouts - Haoi.  Yess, I eagerily board, the Danish couple doesn't since they don't trust the local buses.  Okay, goal accomplished - the only problem is there technically isn't a seat on the bus.  I share an enlarged 2 seat area at the front with 2 others.  It's okay, I talk - in a fashion, with the bus driver crew (the driver, ticket taker, and 2 bag boys), and its a great view.  After an hour or so a seat opens up.

It's fun just staring out the window, but it does end up being a 15 hr trip.  The patties here look different than Thailand and Lao.  Instead of bare looking areas the color of hay, the patties are muddy and flooded.  Water buffalo are up to their middle in the mud and I see some people also working in the fields (wearing conical hats).