all aboard the death bus please!

We boarded the mini-bus which took us to the big bus station in Hanoi.

'Look steve- its a big version of you!'

This guy and his girlfriend board the mini-bus. He's wearing a red base-ball cap on- backwards... Long-ish hair, sporting the exact same backpack as Steve.
This was pretty strange.

Soon after the spotting we introduced ourselves. Big Steve's name was Justin, and his girlfriend was Sarah. They too were from Canada making the long busride from Hanoi, Vietnam to Vientiene, Laos.

We got on to our bus. Which ended up being a sleeper bus and started chatting up a storm. It was nice to meeting some friendly people and have a conversation that was longer then just a few words!

We would have to get used to having numb bums, because as I mentioned the busride was apparently 24 hours... Minimum.
Oh joy.

The roads here are nuts. We were driving through the mountains which meant ups and downs, around corners at the speed of lightning. Passing anything and everything in front of us.

Steve, Justin and Sarah had fallen asleep a couple hours before me, and after running out of ways to preoccupy myself I did too.

About 8 ours later, its now the middle of the night- or should I say wee hours of the morning. At this point the bus is a rumblin'. We were being jostled from left to right. It felt like we were taking on some serious corners, and the bus driver was beeping his foul head off! I turn to Steve who was sitting up at this point.

'Is everything ok Steve? Why is it so bumpy?'

'Oh ya rach... Everything is fine. Go back to bed'.

I listened to him, but had I turned over to look at Sarah and Justin I would have seen them white- knuckling the bar in front of their seats.
Once we stopped at the border (around 3 in the morning) we all woke up and Steve then explained to me what had happened.

Long story short- our bus driver was crazy and had a death wish for all of us. He simply could not not pass people. So when faced with hair-pinned turns and giant mountains he was literally driving in the ditches and honking at people to pass them.
At one point this one bus wouldn't let him pass- so we were driving right on his tail all the way to the border stop. This is when our bus driver lost it.
We had a flat tire from driving in the ditches and over giant pot holes- but before fixing that- the bus driver got out and starting yelling at the other driver, banging on his windows and cursing and swearing I'm sure.
We didn't really know what was going on. But it was a relief that the bus was at a stop.
As the driver fixed our flat we drifted back asleep and waited another 3-4 hours before we could apply to cross the border.
I was nervous for this part of the journey as we didn't have particularly good luck the last time we tried.
The first part entailed waiting in line for an hour just to get your passport stamed to get out Vietnam.  Then you had to wait another hour to get your laos VISA. A lot transpired in these hours.
While steve waited in line to get our stamps, I sat with our bags on the sidewalk just 15 meters away.
Sitting there about 5 guys came up to chat. This is a regular thing here as many people are fascinated with tourist and see it as an opportunity to improve their english. Not a problem I think.
(Especially not worried because there are armed guards all around where we are sitting, so it would be highly unlikely for someone to try and steal from you or hurt you...)
Anyways- the conversation starts out quite normal, with the usual 'where are you from?' 'Do you like vietnam?' 'How long are you here for?'...
I happily answered these questions, and then it started getting weird.
We continued to talk about how I was somewhere in my mid-twenties and wasn't married and had no children.
'Do you want a baby?'
'No...' I answered firmly.
'I will put baby in you ok?'
... Pause...
I took this as my cue to go stand with steve and wait for our stamps together, and kindly declined his offer.
It is strange how quickly conversation goes from appropriate to inappropriate here. I couldn't fathom asking anyone let alone a stranger a question like that.
Such is life though.

Our VISA ended up costing us 43 dollars each. People seemed to be complaining about the steep prices, but steve and I were thanking darwin that it wasn't costing us a whopping 360.

We were on the bus for another 3 hours before a stop for food.  This stop sat particularly bad with steve and I, especially as we weren't quite over our hershey squirts dilemma.

We didn't dare order any food from this stop, but Justin and Sarah did, as well as two other travelers (James and Sarah (yes we know the names are all so similar) ) did.
No one here spoke english- and it seemed whenever we asked for something they just laughed at us. We weren't exactly sure of the reason for this.

At any rate- they all ended up with some type of pork meal. This was THE most disgusting thing I've ever seen.
The pork came with hair still on the skin, and teeth in the meat. The flies flying around the plates wasn't appetizing either...
I thought I was going to be sick.
No one really ate their meal. Maybe they dared a few bites of rice.

Before we knew it we were back on the bus and we'd arrived in Vientine, the capital of Laos.

We were met with aggressive tuk tuk drivers and sand storms, which sounds bad but it really wasn't.
This would be mine and steves first tuk tuk ride, and already we loved them!
Not only do they look so retro, all brightly colours and decked out with lights and paintings- but they are also super breezy to ride in.
We walked the streets in search of a hotel, and once we found one we washed the dirty bus off of us with a nice shower (albeit it was a cold one!) And then met up with the two Sarahs, James and Justin for dinner.
Steve didn't want to brave any meat just yet, so we split a falafle and pad thai. It was pretty yummy, and it definitely filled us up after not eating for a couple days.

Sarah ordered a curry and vomited a mere  5 minutes after eating. That was pleasant.
We all went back to our hotel for some rest and relaxation and low and behold 4 out of 6 of us were sick. (Me being one of them...)
It was time to get the hell out of dodge!