Vietnam D1 - 10/6/18
I managed to catch some sleep aboard the back of the smelly and stale bus. Nothing in my National Service would have prepared me for this ordeal. The bus stopped for dinner around 10pm but I wasn't interested and I simply snacked on my cereal bars. The bus moved on 30mins later and finally reached the checkpoint around 4a.m.
The bus stopped for about 2 hours and I managed to continue catching sleep. Thankfully, the light rain made the surroundings cooler for a better sleep. However I was brashly awaken at 6a.m to alight the bus for immigration at Laos border.
It was quite a chaos as I juggled between clearing immigration, paying some immigration fee and changing currency. Unfortunately, it was impossible to get a good understanding of the exchange rate as the mobile network was virtually nil and there was no update on the whiteboard on rates, so I was kinda ripped off on exchanging kip to dong.
Thankfully for us ASEAN people, clearing immigration was a relative breeze apart from an incident where a fellow Singaporean did not get his passport stamped accidentally. All the caucausians had to get their VISA and then passport done subsequently. This is a picture of the Laos immigration border exit.
ASEANians got on the bus across the border whereas the slower caucasians (who had to do their Visa on-site) had to make do with walking across the border. It was slightly better at the Vietnam border though common sense is still necessarily to negotiate the immigration process. Shown here in this picture is a seemingly makeshift area whereby our passports are checked for Laos immigration exit stamp before proceeding to the Vietnamese immigration border. Of course, I do not know why so many checks are required.
Only after clearing security check did I realise that I have to backtrack to get my passport stamped. It was cooling after the rain and a much welcome 30mins reprieve before entering the bus again. Here, Vietnamese (I presume) could be seen entering Vietnam after completing the Vietnam immigration process.
It will be another 10 hours before we reach Hanoi Nuoc Ngam bus terminal and forget the nightmarish ride asap. The 4 foreigners on the left who were also placed in the relative rear of the bus, just look at their shag faces, especially the one hugging his bag in front.
I was determined to reach our hostel asap after alighting the bus, but not without bading farewell to our fellow Singaporeans who were on a brave motorcycling trip in Vietnam before finishing final year polytechnic
As soon as I left the bus terminal, droves of Grab drivers/motorcyclists began to flock around us and haggle for the standard tourist rip-off prices. It seemed well acted as among them, only 1-2 negotiated a price. It seems they do not fight amongst themselves. Feeling disgusted by their outrageous pricing of 200,000dong, I went through official Grab app and got a Grabcar for 95,000 dong. The feeling of satisfaction was undeniable as the business model of ripping off tourist with through-the-roof prices simply left me unfazed. I wished I could chuckle in their presence, but a demeanor of nonchalance would be a wiser move.
We arrived at the hostel which was decent, clean but slow and intermittent wifi.
https://i.imgur.com/vSQr9ta.jpg
Nonetheless, I settled down and had chicken pho with pig liver at a nearby food stall. If in doubt, a hot dish with blanching of ingredients should be a safe bet against overseas food poisoning.