thanks for all the advice , i finaly made the journey last week so will post how it was done for any one else planing to take the same route .
one guy at the bus station told me the was a bus from there at 7.30 am , the day i arived another guy completly ignored me when i asked for a bus ticket to dien bien phu ( was sooo rude just looked at me looked away finished writing a ticket out got up gave me the cold shoulder and walked of , typical vietnam )
moto driver then said i could get the bus from somwhere else in town
7am ish , from the main bus station i got a moto ( 10,000 dong ) to dien bien phu street in sapa town ( the mini bus for sapa travels along this road , say to a moto driver you want to go to dien bien phu by bus and they will take you here .
the bus for D.B.phu go's via LAI CHAU from dien bien phu street at 7.30-740 am and only say's LAO CAI -- LAI CHAU on the front , paid 200,000 dong and took a long bus journey down the mountains ,
changed bus sumwhere along the route , the bus conductor kindly pointed me to the rite bus and gave the new bus driver the correct fare from the posibly over priced 200,000 dong ticket
from there was another long journey to D.B.Phu , stoping once for the driver and other vietnamese passengers to eat and strech there legs .
( bring your own food for the journey + lots of water , when we stoped at the cafe the owner wanted 100,000 dong for rice and chicken !!!!! when i saw the locals paying 15,000 . wasnt supprise in the slightest but pretty hacked off as the whole way up vietnam this was happing , so just ate the food i brang with me )
you will arive in Dien Bien Phu in the evening and need to stay in a hotle ect over night , i paid 100,000 for a room with two beds which was less than 100 meters from the station
the bus across the boarder leaves at 5.30am its should cost 88,000 dong , on the board at the front of the station its listed as bus number 22 dien bien phu to moung khwa
( i had trouble trying to buy a ticket for the next morning , so just got up erly and secured my seat )
boarder crossing was fine , vietnam side went well , lao side was ok too , as a uk citizen i paid $35 for my visa on arival , then 2 or 3 dollars for " extra fee's "
the bus arived in moung khwa at around 1.30 ish , you have to pay 2000 kip to get a boat across the river as the bus stops on the other side to the town
the bus station is 3km out of town , and there is a bus to udomxai at 3pm for 30,000 kip , i walked this 3km as i fort i had sum time to kill and not much kip either . if you want to walk it just follow the road form the boat landing take a left at the end of the road, past the bank on your righthand side ( you can change money here but no ATM ) and follow that for a few mins to the bus station it seems like you may be walking to the middle of nowhere at some points but you'll get there , just ask the locals if Your goin the right way they were pretty helpfull !
after the bus to udomxai you have to stay there another night as no more buses run untill the morning . from here you can branch out to a few main points and theres an atm or two in the town ( the only one along the route ) , i satyed across the road 40,000 - 50,000 kip single with fan shared bathroom wasnt in the mood to haggle as it was a long todays
please bare in mind tho this journey was done with no rain ! ( if its raining this will most likly take longer ! )and we did brifly stop for the diggers doing the road works to get out the way .
if you do the journey .....
CHANGE DONG TO KIP IN HANOI !!!! NO 1 DOSE IT IN SAPA , OR HAVE A SIDE STASH OF DOLLAS FOR THE LAO SIDE
onli take what dong you will need . ( so u change as little as posible at the boarder or arent stuck with loads of dong )
bring food and water for each leg of the journey just incase you do get stuck ect !!!
remember it will take much longer in the wet , expect delays even in the dry
expect over charging
make sure you pack your bag in a water poof bag or use a good rain cover as bags go on to of the bus as its normaly filled with local or bags of rice
let out a bit sigh and smile when you enter lao ! 😊
hope this helps someone or some people , sorry its long but its a long journey
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