Lizards

The bus stopped at the border of Vietnam at 3am. We had to wait 4 hours until it opened. Most people were sleeping but 3 of us went out of the bus. We had to almost do the monkey bars down the side of the bus to get out as people were sleeping on the aisle. Chatted to two German guys for a couple of hours called Timo and Daniel.
When the border was finally open we were told we had to switch buses. We had to leave our bags on the bus which was slightly worrying. We waited in a hectic office place for an hour until they had finally done something with our passports. We then had to walk to the border in the monsoon rain, it probably took about 20 minutes! When we got there completely soaked and muddy we the had to give our passports in again. Paid a dollar (or a bribe) to get our passports stamped. Found our bags dumped on the side of the road and then walked 5 minutes to get our bus. Not too keen on border crossings!
Vietnam is so different to Loas. As we were driving along, there were masses of grass fields and you saw the locals pick all the grass. And there were tall piles of hay everywhere. We stopped off to get lunch at a local place. The loos were revolting!
Arrived slightly out of Hanoi and everyone got a minivan into the centre from Alphie! Went and booked in at Hanoi backpackers which is such a cool hostel. Sharing a dorm with 3 Geordie girls. We ate at a very basic local restaurant. We bumped into Ed and Max, we then started the pub crawl from the hostel. Was crazy how many of us went. Went to the first bar and realised how tired we were and then headed back.

The picture is from a local restaurant that we stopped off at on our bus journey. They had so many jars of them.