Vientianne, Laos
We changed to a different bus at 1.30 am in the morning to Vinh and then got on another bus at 2am towards Laos.
The bus arrived at the border around 4am and everyone waited
until 7am when the border opens.
The Vietnamese side
The custom officials at the Vietnamese side wanted USD$1 for the border crossing. Since everyone paid so I just went along. I think the USD$1 is a bribe and not an exit tax.
Crossed the border to the Laos side
The whole border crossing took 2 hours for everyone.
The weather in Laos is hot and dry. The bus doesn’t have air condition and the window can’t be opened so it’s pretty stuffy inside. Bags of rices and boxes were stacked all over bus.
The bus stopped a couple of times, dropping of goods.
After a long and torturous ride, finally arrived at Vientienne at 4.30pm after a 23 hours bus ride.
Got on a tuk-tuk (USD$1) to the city center which is another 13km away with 4 other guys from Japan and Korea.
Found Orchid guesthouse to have a better deal after searching around. Cramped into a room together (5000 Kip~USD$6 per person, USD$1~8420Kip)
and this felt like a high school trip with 4 guys in a room.
Orchid guesthouse is just across the Mekong river and there were some open air food stalls beside the river. Had sticky rice for dinner (26,000 Kip~USD$3) with my new roomates.
