Morning in Phonsavon

Alms for the monks.

There is a weekly bus from Phonsavan to Hanoi but because currently is a low season, the bus is not running. Went to the bus station at 6.20am and took the 7am bus to Nong Haet (40,000 Kip~USD$5, 160km 4 hours).


Met Igna on the bus, she was another traveler who was doing the same trip to Hanoi overland.

Passing by some local villages

Arrived at Nong Haet at 11.30am and took the 12pm tuk-tuk (15,000 Kip~USD$2)

from Nong Haet to the Laos border which is another 15km away.

Local villages

The border was closed for lunch and only opened at 1.30pm.
Trucks waiting at the border

Laos side of the border

Crossing the border was pretty easy and only took 30 minutes.
Crossed to the Vietnam side

It’s 25km downhill from the Vietnamese border to the nearest town called Muong Xen. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any transportation other than motorbike. Since Igna doesn’t prefer to take motorbike, waited on the road and managed to find a car going down to the city and paid him 120,000 Dong~USD$6 each to get to Muong Xen. The driver was quite friendly and invited us to his house

while we waited for the bus towards Vinh.

Got on the 4.30pm bus towards Vinh (40,000 Dong~USD$2)

but we got off at Cuong Con, around 110km away. Arrived at Cuong Con at 7.30pm.

Had rice with chicken for 60,000 Dong~USD$3 and waited for the 8.30pm bus towards Hanoi (200,000 Dong~USD$10).