Dear Mom and Dad,
We finally made it to Vietnam after an awful few days of traveling. We intended to leave on a bus and go straight to hanoi, however, nothing goes as planned. An hour before we were leaving the bus company said we had to pay more money because it was the Chinese New Year. It was the end of January and the new year wasn't until the end of February, so we knew they were just trying to scam us of more money. We did get a refund, but that was the start of a long stressful few days.
We got a bus to Vientiane, which left an hour later than expected and lasted for five hours instead of three. Then when they gave us our bags, it was very clear the employees were going through them because Charlie and I pack our bags the same way every time. Our bags were zipped and buckled differently. The contents of our bags were all mixed up as well. Nothing appeared to have been stolen and our essential belongings were in our daypacks with us. It was just frustrating nonetheless. The employee's face was priceless when Andy and Charlie confronted him about going through our bags. I didn't realize how intimidating those two can be.
Everything closes early in Laos, so finding a hostel for the night was no picnic. VirtuAlly nobody would rent us a room, but we did find a nice hotel for $7.50 apiece after a couple of hours walking around the town. Andy and I had to get in line for bus tickets at 7:30am until 9am, when we finally purchased them. Our bus didn't leave until 6pm, so we killed time by watching movies in the hotel lobby.
We ate dinner at the bus station before departing. The lady tried to overcharge us food, but we are no idiots. We can't read laotion, but we can identify symbols. Andy put her in her place when he matched up the symbols and identified the correct prices.
Finally, our bus left shortly after 6p.m. We had a sleeper bus with seats that lay almost flat into a bed. This was useful because we were on this bus for a full 24 hours. The Vietnam crossing was no picnic either. We thought it would be because we alreAdy payed $80 for visas. Well, the bus left us at the Laos border and we had to walk a mile in the rain to the Vietnam border. Everyone else in the bus got to ride that stretch. This made riding the bus with air conditioning miserable.
We split up for our hostel stay because one hostel would have the Super Bowl, but only had room for one. Andy stayed there, and Charlie and I got a room in an adjacent hostel. This way we could all watch the game the following morning.
Here we are watching the game.
The hostel had to stream the game over the internet and couldn't get the sound to work, so they provided free beer.
Cheers to a good game! The sound eventually game on right before the second quarter. It was three seconds ahead of the visual, so Charlie struggled to deal with the lag. He would cheer slightly ahead of everyone else, and many kept saying "how did he know that?" I found this to be very entertaining.
We had dinner twice last night. I had a cheeseburger for my first meal, and the boys split the veggie/meat grill.
Then as we were walking back, we came across a fancy sushi place. Andy showing his maturity as a respectable college graduate...walrus.
This was Charlie's plate for $4.50. The conversion rate is $1 USD to $21,000 dong.
We will not be riding scooters anytime soon. The drivers here are nuts. People drive on both sides of the road in any direction is fastest for them. Crossing the road on foot is an intense game of frogger. This picture doesn't even do justice.
The boys got matching silk jammies for $15, so when we stay in the next hostel together I will get a pic. Also, I can't wait to get out of mine and Charlie's hostel. We could her a mouse rustling around yesterday,and last night I found a mouse turd that makes me think it's the size of a jungle rat. Get me out of here.
We are planning our next few trips to Sapa for the rice patties and Halong Bay.
Love,
Three blind mice
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