Day 12 - Another broken nights sleep as up at 05:30 to 'hopefully' catch a bus in to Vietnam. Apparently the buses have a reputation of just not turning up. When we got downstairs, the minibus was waiting for us! Another English couple emerged from the hotel followed by a couple of German fellas. They were all off on an all day journey to Danang whereas we were off to Kon Tom. The English couple jumped in the front which was fine by us as we HAD loads of space in the back. Read on......

The start of the journey was pretty good with plenty of space but then we pulled up at another stop, 3 seats left, 5 people to pick up! Without a batting of an eyelid, they were loaded on and we were squashed in, no problem, only 5 hours to go!!!!

The scenery between Attapeu and the Bo Y border crossing was pretty amazing. High mountains covered in jungle - some higher than the morning clouds. We passed a few landslides on the way but the road wasn't too bad.

We came to a sudden halt at the top of a hill and we both looked at each other as we had heard of drivers pulling over and demanding money. We had nothing to worry about here though as it was just a cigarette stop, phew! And it was a good photo opportunity too.

We eventually made it to the border to go from Laos to Vietnam. The process was pretty long winded. The van got checked first, then we all got off and showed our passports to a man in a hut, then over to the official Laos building to check out of Loas, then all back into the van. After driving through no-man's land we arrive at the Vietnam side - out of the minibus, bags off too this time - and then passports checked at least another two times! Eventually we were all back on the bus successfully in Vietnam!

It seemed different straight away on the other side of the border. The other Europeans got off just over the border to get another bus up to Danang whereas we stayed on to go south to Kon Tum. Then came the best part, in a local town, the bus suddenly pulled off the road into a shady looking street restaurant that looked like something out of The Godfather and a mob hideout. Again the thoughts were racing through our heads. Everyone got off the bus and we were pointed to the tables to sit down. We sat at a table watching a woman constantly bringing food out to a table nearby. 5 minutes later with a tap on the shoulder we were ushered to the food table. Could this be too good to be true, no, after a lack of breakfast
this was a massive bonus. Fish, meat, rice, chilli sauce, what more could one want for breakie?!! (and apparently for free!)

Back on the bus it was onto Kon Tum. We rolled into town at about 11:30 and were dropped off at the bus station just north of town. Before we'd had a chance to draw breath a taxi pulled alongside and gave us the international sign of 'the nod'! Off to the Thinh Vuong which we had not booked so we were hoping they had space. 5 minutes later we were there and asked for a room. No problems with this as the front desk asked for 250,000 dong (about £7.50). We thought that was cheap but speedily handed over the money before she changed her mind. We were shown to our room (at this point please bear in mind the £7.50 room we stayed at yesterday), and what a room, TV, air con, computer, wifi, bath, shower!! We thought the initial payment must be a deposit.

Then out for a wander round the streets of Kon Tum. The people were really friendly and every child we passed shouted 'hello, how are you?'. Took a look at the town's wooden church and then down by the river side to watch some of the locals farming along the riverbank - a strange site in the middle of the town centre! The best find in Kon Tum was the bakery just round the corner from the hotel - so we picked up lunch there and ate it down by the river.

We wanted to wander to a local village to see their wooden stilt houses but was far too hot to be walking!

Back to the hotel to make use of the Internet and book bus tickets for tomorrow, and then back out for some dinner. Confident from our breakfast experience we tried a local noodle bar and had what everyone else was having - fried chicken and rice. Unfortunately the bakery was still open when we walked back to the hotel so we had to go in again and buy pudding!