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Today I woke to the sudden stillness of the bus realising it must be about 3am and we had arrived at the border, amazing that I had practically slept the whole journey... Thank you Diazapam. I promptly fell back asleep to wake about six fifteen am busting for the loo... I climbed out over the seats on front (only way to and from our back seat) and headed off to find the toilets before brushing my teeth and washing my face. I then headed back to the bus where we were grunted at a short time later by the driver who was telling us to follow him to departures, however only us westerners as the rest of the bus carried on chilling out while he carried their passports and did the deed for them.
We entered the building and waited as they were yet to open, I was at the front of the booth he told us to stand at when an Asian women pushed in towards me with a handful of passports... I simply looked at her at said "don't even try it... We are first" before glaring at her. She stood her ground for a minute then moved away. Eventually the guy appeared and we were brushed aside regardless and told to go to a different booth where no one stood... This was the first of much discriminating behaviour throughout the day and I was growing tired of it. We had already been made to endure the back seat for twelve hours as "that's where the westerners sit". We are sat there because its a hell of a lot more bumpy and uncomfortable and yet for some reason people just accept that that's the norm and its okay. Could you imagine if we tried that at home... Your not british so backseat for you.
Eventually the guy appeared and stamped our passports... The place was mayhem and people were everywhere pushing and shoving, queues appeared to be a silly western idea that no one else abides to. There was a group of us from the bus sticking together... Me and Steven, two German guys and two Canadian girls. We shuffled back out looking for the driver with no avail so slowly headed for the bus. On arriving at the bus he was already back with his bus load of locals and their passports, we went to climb back on and he shouted and waved us off again pointing to the gate indicating the departure from Lao. Yes we were then made to walk through the gate and the one and a half km walk to the Vietnamese border while everyone else sat on the bus and drove there... Even passing us as we walked through an area full of rubble, trucks. The buses even had the audacity to honk at us telling us to move out the way. I couldn't believe it, felt like shouting back "why don't you let us on the bus then? Then we wouldn't be walking the narrow road in your way... Morons! ....I had slowly realised how discriminated against we are in Asia but this was a whole new level.
We walked to the Vietnam border where the guards on that side were even ruder shouting and gesturing for us to go here and there (no signs indicating anything). We eventually headed to the immigration where we were made to pay a dollar each "stamp fee" which basically goes straight in the officials pockets for beer. Its a widely known scam that you can't even fight but again no one seems to care that its occurring... Welcome to the world of corruption. We then handed in our passports where three guys took nearly an hour to stamp them, again after I pushed past another dozen rude locals trying to jump the queue. To then get ignored regardless and get seen last. By now I was tired, annoyed and feeling very angry at the blatant racism I was experiencing... That would never be allowed to occur at home. We bend over backwards for immigrants in the Uk and would never dream of segregating them or making them feel like second class citizens while putting our own first... We would be sued if we treated people like this. Jeez we are even too scared to hang our own nations flags incase we offend someone.
Eventually passports stamped we headed to the customs area lugging our bags ready to be searched... Although in the end the guy was obviously fed up as he just waved us past. We then met the bus but weren't allowed to enter as the police were checking the bus, when the time came to finally reload our bags we were again pushed to the back and even though the driver loaded every single bag, box and whatever else people were travelling with. He simply grunted and gestured for me to go around the other side if the bus. Here a guy looked at me then made no attempt to assist me in loading my bag, despite the fact my hands were already full... Was so rude. I gave up even trying to be civil at this point and just went off and climbed on to my bed on the bus, which was now full of locals who had climbed back on ages ago. I sat on my bed only to hear a banging on the window next to me... Next thing the bus driver is gesturing for me to get off and so I had to then climb back over and get off the bus (thought my head would explode at his point). The reason?? Oh we needed to walk another few hundred yards to get our passports checked... The same passports that had just bloody well been stamped after our visas had been checked with a fine tooth comb. Now I had bare feet as I wasn't expecting to be hiking another few hundred feet so had to do so in bare feet.
After the guard glanced at the stamp... Not even checking the photo or name. We had to sit in the blazing sunshine and wait for the bus, we weren't allowed to walk back to the bus or anything, we had to sit in the sun and wait a good twenty minutes for the bus to decide it was time to go and drive past us. There was a thai couple on the bus who didn't get pulled off, didn't walk the one and a half km to the border and didn't have to sit in the blazing heat waiting like an idiot to board the bus again. It was literally a group of us 'white' westerners. I was fuming as I had never witnessed such blatant racist behaviour and again I couldn't even comprehend that happening at home, it was just beyond belief and by the point I had no desire to be in Vietnam. I hadn't been looking forward to it anyway as I had been told about so many scams and mugging but knew that I couldn't judge it until I had seen and experienced the place myself... Well now I was so much more excited by the prospect if four weeks here.
After a lifetime we sat back on the bus and I just shut off and ignored everyone. I was so sad and really wanted to tell asia to shove it and fly home but knew that I was just being silly and the moment would pass. I must have dozed off again as the next time we woke we were at a rest stop, I tried to climb over the chairs without standing all over the girls chair in front of me and accidentally broke my sunnies... Now I wanted to cry! I had only bought them and I was only being nice. I stomped off to the toilet (which was at least free...) and then joined Steven at a table where we made some tuna baguettes. We were aware the rest stops on the journey would be extortionate so prepared by bring baguettes, some tuna, fruit and cookies. The resturant was offering food at thirty to forty thousand dong, which although is only just over a pound still pricey for Asian standards so we were glad we were prepared. We spent the time writing down the Vietnamese words such as Pho meaning flat wide noodles and Bo meaning beef. Its a well known fact that the Vietnamese have a two tier system and as soon as you ask for an English menu you pay double the price. It is there fore worth learning the local dishes by name so you don't have to ask for the English menus.
We ate our sandwiches and headed back on the bus, once back on I gave my list of Vietnamese to the German guys and then the Canadian girls to copy. It then transpired that they had been given the English menu and so paid seventy thousand dong for the egg rice (literally egg and rice... No veg or extras) which had been advertised as thirty thousand dong on the main board. This vexed me further as I had heard of such behaviour but couldn't believe I was witnessing it. Travellers who ordered food in good faith had just entered the country and the greedy scumbags just ripped them off straight away... Its sad that its become like this here.
The bus drove on and flew by as I intermittently slept and enjoyed the scenery, soon enough we were close to Hanoi and the view was so pretty. the sun was setting over the rice fields and made the sky orange and red, was lovely against the backdrop of various churches. We were soon in Hanoi and offloading our bags and such. We had advised the group about another scam rife here ...especially at bus stations. The taxis tell you they are metered then you get in feeling secure, but there meters run three times as fast and you can end up with ridiculously priced fares. Instead we encouraged them to join us to get the local bus number eight. This costs a mere five thousand each (15p) and dropped us a the lake near the guesthouses.
As we walked towards Saint Joseph's cathedral we were met by a local man and his son on a scooter who stopped and offered us rooms for ten dollars each... I thought we could check it out but Steven wasn't keen. However majority votes so we followed him to his hotel called the Princes hotel. It was right in the old quarter and down a very busy and noisy side street. As we entered a it looked like it would cost a lot more then ten dollars each, a guy met us and told us to see a room but we preserved asking how much. After some tense negotiations we agreed at ten dollars with no breakfast and followed him to a room. Steven was having none of it and sat downstairs, on seeing the room we knew something wasn't right... The rooms were nice, with computers, bathroom with bathtub and lots of space.
We went back down and I told Steven to look but he just looked annoyed, downstairs we negotiated for the girls and guys (we weren't sure on staying). We made sure the rate was ten dollars per room NOT per person, which is another known Vietnamese scam that you don't get enlightened too until you pay your bill. He agreed it was per room so I asked why it was so cheap... To which he replied that it was because they were quiet, Normally they charge over twenty dollars but as they had no customers they would give the cheap rate. I then ensured that the ten dollars was for every night of the stay and not just tonight before going up to twenty two dollars tomorrow. At this he definitely looked shifty and uum'ed and aahh'ed before agreeing that it was ten dollars each night before mentioning tours. At this Steven had heard enough and dragged me out the door... I said bye to the guys and that we may be back.
We didn't go back as little did I know but Steven had booked us into a hotel next to Saint Joseph's cathedral, it was a special treat for my birthday and a surprise. We arrived at the hotel "splendid star grand hotel" and were met by a very pleasant manager named Martin who offered us a nice welcome drink and told us to relax. He had extremely good English and chatted with us while we cooled down and enjoyed our drinks before showing us up to our room. We were given a huge family suite with two big double beds, flat screen tv, sofa and sitting area, desktop computer, mini bar and a bathroom complete with bath tub (one of his must haves as he knows I adore a bath). It was splendid and so nice. We unpacked our things and while I had a lovely relaxing bath, Steven went and grabbed some beers and noodles. We then laid on our huge beds watching movies and relaxing with a cup of coffee before falling asleep and forgetting the whole horrid border experience.
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