Hue, Vietnam

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Ok. Wow. Where to begin! Egad.

The epic journey of getting into Vietnam from Laos started back in Tad Lo, where, since there isn't a bus station or anything, you just wait on the side of the road until a bus goes by. There is no schedule so you just wait and wait which we did for about 3 hrs. GAH! We took a public bus (squishy, hot, dusty, the usual) to Pakse where I sadly parted w/ Ali and immediately jumped onto my next public bus to Savannakhet. This leg of the journey was promised to me to be 5 hours. Max. I arrived 8hrs later! Grrrrr.

Public buses are the biggest test of patience since you stop at every town along the way and wait for some lady to get her stuff ready or you wait for the bus driver to eat his dinner (but no, NO you are NOT allowed to get off the bus to eat yourself!) The enroute entertainment consisted of Thai techno beat music blaring over the speakers accompanied by a DVD of Thai girls dancing provocatively in short shorts and tiny tops. I was also kept busy by my seat mate, a 21 yr old Laos man who kept asking me questions like "What do you feel when your beloved leaves you" (Answer from me: Sad), followed by "Why do tears fall when you sad?" (Answer from me: Well, there are hormones, chemical messengers in your your brain, that cause you to cry when you are happy or sad, etc. etc, etc. with him nodding like he understood everything I said!hahhaha), followed by "Is your beloved waiting for you?" (Me: I have no beloved), "Your beloved, he is not sad, crying and waiting for you in your country" (NO I HAVE NO BELOVED! WHY DON"T YOU RUB IT IN SOME MORE! lol). Hilarious.

Next bus - an all nighter leaving the dark and sketchy Savannakhet station at 10 pm heading to Vietnam. By this time I had been on a bus for 12 continuous hours. What was another 12?! So I bought my ticket (another public bus, no VIP, air-con, or minibus for this girl!) and was promised I would be in the city of Hue by 8am the next morning. So onto the bus I went, squished again beside another interesting character - a Vietnamese woman who, over the course of the next 12 hours, shared her ice cream cone, drank my water and put perfume in my hair. She also literally fondled my breasts. Baaaaahahha omigod I didn't know what to think! The Vietnamese are very touchy feely and in your face but this was a little much. I also contended with the 80 yr old man behind me who refused to move his feet which so nicely were placed beside my face for the whole trip.

15mg of Valium later, we arrived at the border. Except not really at the border b/c I had to walk 2 km at 5am to get my passport stamped. It was the sketchiest process ever and I won't go on w/ the details but I survived full out brawls and yelling matches but finally got my bum over the border and back on the bus.

The next hurdle came when after another 5hrs of driving (at this point I had been on a bus for about 27 hrs without peeing or eating since they would never let you off) the bus driver stopped the bus, grabbed my bag and threw it on the side of the road claiming this was Hue. Baaaaahahha. It literally was the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, not a city! I had no choice but to get off with my bag and the bus sped of. Wonderful.

I found a man to take me by motorbike to Hue but for a large sum and at this point, I had neither US dollars nor Vietnamese dong. I started to cry so the motorbike man took pity and started to drive me to Hue, but still trying to get money out of me, kept stopping and telling me to get off b/c this was Hue when it REALLY was just another bit of the side of the road! GAWD. They are merciless! What an intro to Vietnam!

Anyway - I finally arrived in Hue after paying a couple of motorbike men lots of money and was overjoyed to meet up w/ Tory in our air-con room. Glorious!

The next two days, we explored the city of Hue which is everything that southern Laos is not. It is loud, busy, polluted, pushy with ppl trying to selling you something or take you somewhere at every turn. Tory and I did the tourist thing and took at boat tour down the perfume river, visiting tombs of many emperors. We also strolled around the city's famous Citadel, another UNESCO world heritage site. The architecture is amazing and the sites are beautiful.

Regardless though, I am excited to get to Hoi An, a smaller fishing town which is renowned for its tailor shops - I'm going to be flexing my mastercard muscles for sure!

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