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The long journey to Hanoi began with a 3 hour bus journey to Vientiane, where we then had to travel from one side of the city to the other. When we arrived at the bus station we found that our bus for the next part of the journey was not a nice air con bus with reclining seats as we had expected but a local bus.
The journey didn't get off to the best start when the locals kept making us move from one seat to another. The language barrier was a bit of an issue and they would basically start shouting at us in Lao and pointing until we moved. Eventually we got seats, although it was a struggle, I ended up sat next to a local man. The man had to be the rudest Lao person I've ever met! He stank of alcohol, had no concept of personal space and insisted on smoking constantly. For some reason he thought that he had the right to sit on my seat as well so we were battling for space as we tried to sleep!
The bus stopped at for around three hours so the bus driver could sleep, then we continued to the boarder. Once there we had to wait for the office to open. We got our Lao exit stamp and crossed over no mans land to enter Vietnam. We had to hand over our passports and wait for entry stamp. For some reason they man behind the desk decided that I didn't look like my passport picture and therefore I had to provide another form of ID otherwise I wouldn't be allowed into the country. Fortunately I had my fake student ID with me so after a long wait and thinking they weren't going to let me into the country they gave me my stamp. It's madness that my passport couldn't get me into the country yet my student ID, with the exact same photo as my passport, could!!!
As we got back on the bus and started to drive through Vietnam four people around me began to be sick. Three of the four used plastic bags but one was just sick on the floor, it was disgusting!! Eventually people began to get of the bus and we got a little more room but it has to be the worse bus journey in my life! We finally made it to Hanoi after 30 hours of traveling.
Sarah and Casey had arrived the day before so had found a hotel and arranged for us to be picked up. We went out for some food but I was so tired that I could barely speak.
The next day Tom, Casey's boyfriend, arrived. They spent the day together and the rest of us went to the water park. It wasn't the best water park in the world and as it was a weekend it was mainly full of locals who found us all very amusing.
The next day Tom's friend, Justin, from Kuala Lumpa arrived. We went to the museum of Ethnology and then found a lake with pedalo on so hired those out for half an hour before heading back to get some food.
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