39 and a half hours later...

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and we finally made it to vietnam! We left our guesthouse in laos at 6am and made it to one hanoi at half 9 2 days later! The first leg of our journey was a ten hour bus ride from luang prabang back to vientienne, during these 10 hours the bus door was open throughout, and for the first 4 hours or so we were going through thick mist in the mountains (jess was freezing, hannah was feeling smug because she brought a jumper). Needless to say when we stopped off at the side of a rainy mountain road and all we could find to eat were crisps we were not best pleased! The bus had much more locals on it than tourists and we learnt that the laos people, while lovely, do not have the stomachs for travel. Our suspicions were aroused when the bus driver handed out sickbags to everyone who got on and yes, for the next 10 hours we had people in the seats behind and in front of us being sick constantly! Despite this, we arrived in vientienne feeling ok and just crossing our fingers that the sleeper bus we had booked was actually this, and not some wooden planks on a cattle wagon (there are some horror stories about the laos-vietnam bus journey going around!) We were down to our very last kip so we fuelled ouselves for our epic journey with....bread and water. Mmmmm. Luckily the bus was a sleeper and it actually looked very luxourious, so we got on feeling pretty pleased ith ourselves. The next 26 hours were certainly an experience, from getting caught in a thunderstorm on the side of a mountain in laos (and being more scared than weve been so far) trying to figure out a border crossing (no idea wether our bus was going to turn up on the other side, jess trying to ask him just got a blank stare so just tried to smile alot and look like the sort of person you wouldnt want to leave stranded) and breaking down on the side of a vietnamese highway, standing on the side of the road with lorries buses scooters and the occasional horse and cart flying (or trotting) past its a journey we wont forget in a hurry, but something i think we would both be happy never to repeat! so were safe and well, going to book a tour to halong bay today!
love to everyone
p.s jess would like to tell her mother that she hasnt worn anything but her black primark flip flops since she got here, and has come to think they are something of a miracle shoe, if you could stock up if you go to primark that would be lovelyxxx

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