OK so my trip to Vietnam...here we go!

I caught a bus from Vientiane to Savannekhet in Laos at 5.15am on Friday morning, which meant getting up and 4 and walking the streets to find a tuk tuk, i found one which was great, the driver was lovely and he even stopped at the ATM for me to get some cash out. My bus journey was pretty good and I arrived at about 1.30 ish, I knew that from here i could catch a bus to take me from here to the boarder crossing at Lao Bao, over the boarder and on to Dong Ha in Vietnam, but the bus wasnt until pm - ah! 9 hours ish to wait...great, so i went for a little walk around town, stopped for something to eat and then headed back to the bus station - lucky i had my book with me! the wait wasnt so bad but it got pretty cold so i put my trousers on over my shorts and had a top, a long sleeve top, a thin fleece that i had bought the day before (which i am now so grateful for) a scarf and my socks! i was good to go!

My bus arrived at about 9.45, it came around the corner and i thought 'what...you have to be kidding me' this was a public bus as public as you could get, it was small, dirty and old, it reminded me of the type of buses that they would cart prisoners off to jail in in American olden day films! still i got on ready for my 11 hour journey and did my best to get confortable, though i had a grumpy old man behind me so i couldnt tilt my seat back! We drove for about 3 hours and then stopped - that was it for the night, we stayed there until about 7.30am!!! great and i was freezing i had to get my sleeping liner out of my bag and huddle up in that!

The actual boarder crossing was interesting also, at around 6am the driver shone a light in my eyes and asked for my passport, so i gave it to him praying that i would get it back ok, there was so much confusion in the following hour as to whether i had to walk to the border to get it stamped or not, there was a Thai girl and her Japanese boyfriend who couldnt understand what the Lao driver was saying so i had to help translate (the English, not the Lao) and they had to walk to the border but i stayed where i was, We left at about 7.30 and headed towards the border, I then had to get out, walk to the Vietnamese border, get my passport checked, stamped, fill in my arrival card etc...and then we got back on the bus! phew that was that bit done!

I knew that the Thai girl (it think her name was gip) and her boyfriend were going to a place called Hue which is a little further south than Dong Ha where my ticket was for so i decided to pass my stop and get off there with them in hope that the driver wouldnt notice, as is happens he didnt notice and i have no idea when we passed Dong Ha anyway so its a good job i had already decided on Hue as i would have missed my stop anyway!

When we arrived in Hue (at about 1-2pm so 15ish hours of traveling later) the three of us got on some motorbikes to take us to a street with some guesthouses on it, it was pretty scary as my helmet kept flapping around and it was almost as if the motorbikes were racing each other! anyway, we got there safe and found a hotel! My room was really nice actually, 1 double bed and 1 single bed (all for me) a fridge, a TV, a toilet and a bath/shower, luxury for $5! I went for a little walk and had something to eat and then decided to go back to my room for a snooze - I must have been tired as i laid down at about 3ish and didnt wake up again until 6am this morning! i dont think iv ever slept that long in my life!

When i got up this morning i had some breakfast then went to look in some of the travel agents for trips and things to see, nothing particually took my fancy and from what i had seen of Hue it wasnt too nice, it is loud, busy and the people are very pushy - and to top ot all off the weather is crap! its cold and very over cast so anything that i did go and see probably wouldnt have looked very nice anyway! so i decided to catch a bus (an orgainsed tourist bus this time) to Hoi An which is further south at 9am.

I arrived in Hoi An at about 12 and im so glad that i did, it is still busy here but not as much and there is a lot more to see here, it is quite expensive though and it took me a while to find a guesthouse (i was walking around for over an hour) still i expect if my map reading and navigational skills wernt as poor as they are, it wouldnt have taken me so long, but at least it helped me to have a look around the town etc... I found an exchange book shop which exchanges 2 of your books for 1 of their books, it was run by a Californian man called Randy who was really nice, he told me that the weather had been poor here since the big storm in China, but it was meant to be starting to brighten up - today was the first day the had sunshine! Im so glad! im missing the sunshine already and its only been a couple of days! so i traded in my 2 James Patterson books for a book by Jodi Picoult who Randy said was a very good author!

There is a Chinese girl staying in my hotel who checked in at the same time as me, i bumped into her in the market afterwards and we decided to meet for dinner tonight, she also suggested sharing a room maybe to save money (its $10 in the hotel im in at the moment) so i shall see how it goes at dinner!

Anyway, thats my report for now, i really hope i havnt scared any of you with my terrible trip alone into Vietnam, im sure that that was just a one off...especially as i have decided to stay away from public transport for the moment, it may be cheaper but i just dont care! I am making sure that i stay safe, i am not planning on walking around on my own after dark etc.... so there really is nothing for you to worry about, even though i am on my own i have already met other people, as long as i stay sociable i will be fine! OK Mum! xxxxxxxxxxx