I made it! . . . 24 hours later! I was actually a bit surprised things went as smoothly as they did. I'll back up though: Leaving Hanoi felt great; on the way to the bus station in the cab I new I had made a good choice. I'm not sure what it is about north Vietnam, but I just couldn't get out of there fast enough - the weather, the people, the food - whatever it is, it didn't work for me though none of it was bad . . . perhaps I just had high expectations coming from the south. Anyway, I ended up in the very back of the bus (i.e. - the seats that don't lean back at all and are also right about the overheating diesel engine) with two women from Canada. One of the back windows was broken so there was a constant stream of air ranging from a breeze to 50 k gusts . . . we stopped a number of times so the 12 guys running the bus could hop out and look at the engine in confusion while arguing about who's turn it was to go get stream water to fill up the radiator . . . the driver seemed to have a facination with stalling the bus on the most steep and sharp corners . . . and we had a one hour lay over at a barbed wire factory were a good portion of the cargo was unloaded. Needless to say there was no way to take the whole situation seriously so we made the best of it; and it was actually somewhat entertaining to climb over the cargo and luggage packed between the seats (see photos) - at least none of it was alive. All in all, I'm glad I save the money and went with the bus. The country-side was beautiful along the way and I had some good company to laugh/cry with. First impressions: Vientiane is a drastic change for the better from Hanoi. It reminds me a lot of Thailand, except the locals are even more friendly and laid back. It's hard to believe that Vientiane is a capital city because it feels so small and low-key (the guide book says the pop. is 205 k). The food is wonderful and things are quite a bit cheaper than Vietnam. I think I'll kick around here a few days and aclimate to the culture before heading north. Cheers - tanner
(I'll get some photos from N. Vietnam up in the next few days)
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