Welcome to Vietnam

Several times I had seen a direct bus to Vinh in northern Vietnam passing the main street in Phonsavan early in the morning. As I waited for it Saturday morning, I waited in vain, no direct bus today. So I took a local bus to Nong Het, from there a pick-up to the border. On the bus I met two french women, not bad, I wouldn't be travelling alone. One of "my English students" was also there, visiting his parents close to Nong Het. He enjoyed the opportunity to talk english... while we talked,I admired the landscape, the road passed through beautiful mountain scenery, it was a magnificent trip.

When we got to the border, at about 11.30, it was closed, until 14.00 pm. So we waited... When it opened again, we went through some kind of bureaucracy which reminded me of East German bureaucracy long time ago... For the first time in many years my luggage was searched, but probably more out of sheer curiousity. One of the guards marvelled at my razor blades... they look like the ones David Beckham makes publicity for, but of course only look like them, because I don't earn as well as Beckham, I can't afford this expensive stuff, anyway, the guard marvelled at them and asked me to give him one... no problem, as I had enough with me, and then the search was completed...
On the Vietnamese side there was no bus or pick-up, only a crowd of small motorcycles, the only transport available to the next town 25 kms away. We climbed on the benches, not too easy with our backpacks, and the race was on... I remembered an article in the "Vientiane Times" some weeks ago, about the accident and mortality rate of Vietnamese motorcycle drivers, and didn't feel very comfortable. After about a kilometer my driver stopped at a house, a woman ran out and handed him a helmet. I was happy that at least one of us two would have good chances to survive an accident... The road wasn't paved, it was full of tight bends and curves, there were lots of dogs and chicken which we almost ran over... fortunately it was too high up to raise water buffaloes...
I wish I had made this route on a bus, I could have enjoyed better the marvellous landscape. After some kilometers the dirt road turned into road with good tarmac, we also reached the two bikes with the french women, who went at a slower pace... so we continued at a more pleasant speed the descent through this terrific mountain region...

When we arrived at the town, they dropped us in front of the only hotel, where a discussion started about the price and quality of the place (actually it was very good), because they wanted us to stay, while I more thought of how to continue. We managed to catch the last bus to Vinh, which took another six hours, again through beautiful country. We slowly descended from the altitude, then followed a river through a narrow valley for several hours. The mountains gave way to banana plantations and rice paddies, and slowly but steady the traffic accumulated. What I saw (and heard) made me want to go back to peaceful Laos immediately... but I think I had mentioned a pattern of Vietnamese traffic just a few minutes ago, so now definitely it all seemed to fit together... Anyway, at about 22.00 we arrived in Vinh, a little bit tired. After four weeks Laos I was overwhelmed by the traffic... we more or less took the first hotel we found, also to escape the crowds of people who wanted to drive us to other places, and I didn't even go out to get something to eat...
Welcome to Vietnam...