Punctually at 8am we arrived at the boarder at Cau Treo. Our visa expired thus we had to leave Laos. However, the though of the delicious Vietnamese food eased the good-bye. After crossing the no man’s land between the countries we suddenly knew that we are in Vietnam. Even with the visa you somehow have to give the officers 1 USD, naturally there are not receipts or signs mentioning it. Most probably it is for their extra expenses account.
After the usual search of the bus, we continued our journey in our comfy sleeper bus. Well, it was mostly comfy for me, since you need to be smaller than 1.70m to fit properly into the beds. The last half an hour we spent on the floor next to fellow Asian passengers to be able to get faster off the bus. The bus ran behind schedule and the driver decided to kick us out in the middle of the city instead of the station.
Later that evening we went to have dinner at a typical Vietnamese beer hall. We were already the main attraction in Vinh just by walking around. Since there is nothing of tourist interest, they do not see many of us. People just stared, called their friends to have a look at us and pointed with fingers. The beer hall nearly went silence when we entered and sat down. Soon our neighbors invited us and offered to share their food. Thankfully Michi scarified himself and tried all of it. After he peeled the little egg and we saw that there were already faders on it, I was even more thankful.
The next day we drove up to Hanoi. We planned to visit the several operators offering motorbike tours in Vietnam. Traffic on Vietnams streets looks like chaos. First rule is; there are no rules. During our research we found a summary of the most important rules, and decided to skip the tour this holiday:
- Larger vehicles have right of way. Avoid anything bigger than you and slow down.
- Traffic is like a river, you have to flow in it.
- Use signal and the most important thing is the horn. People don't care about the noise of horns.
- Speed limit in Vietnam is very low (25-80km/h). Don't break the speed limit, a ticket is expensive!
- Animals are everywhere in the country or mountain roads. Dogs and chickens are the most then come water buffaloes, cows, pigs and horses...If you kill a dog or a chicken don't stop, cry and feel sorry, it's not your fault. Slow down and don't hit water buffaloes, cows, pigs and horses, simply they are too big!
- If the police stop you just keep talking English or whatever you want and they'll soon give up and let you go in less than five minutes.
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