Hi Guys it's Rach, my turn to write the blog now.

So we're now back in Vietnam at great cost - not just for the visa, but for a very expensive bus ride; and not just financial cost - it was the cost of our sanity too!

It took us 29 and a half hours, 4 buses, 1 minibus, a tuc-tuc ride and a motorbike ride too. It was the worst journey of our lives! Finally we were able to leave VangVieng and we got to the bus stop and waited for an hour for the bus to arrive. We finally set off and were about 5 mins into the journey when the driver drove over a huge pot hole and blew a tyre. After half an hour with 3 men trying to fix it they finally decided it was too challenging a task and told us to get onto a different bus. So by the time we got into Vientiane (where our connecting bus was) we were an hour and a half late. Miracoullously there was a guy there waiting for our bus with our passports in his hand and he rushed us through to our supposed 'VIP' bus. However, the bus we were suposed to get had left and we were pointed towards this other one. As we were getting on we realised we were the only westerners there and all the locals were for some reason laughing at us.

We soon realised why. The locals had taken up all the seats but 'fortunately' for us there was an expanse at the back of the bus, which was the most filthy floor ever - we're pretty sure that that bus takes animals on it too and that's where the animals stay.

All the locals kept on staring at us and we were pretty on edge but in the end our tiredness overcame us and we tried, fairly unsuccessfully, to fall asleep on the disgusting floor using our bags as a pillow.

Eventually at 6am the next morning we reached the border, however, the border didn't open until 7 and after that we had to wait because the President of Vietnam was coming through and we couldn't carry on until he passed us. At this point someone who worked on the bus came and asked us for our passports so we handed them over not knowing what the hell was going on.

Finally at 9am we started moving and then after 5 mins we stopped and everone started getting out of the bus and as noone had told us anything we thought it would be best to follow them. Eventually we got to a cafe and saw out passports there. We were then told that we had to pay $3 to get them stamped. Next we were told that we had to wait until 2pm in this godforsaken place (we had no idea where we were) before we could cross the border.

Finally the bus came and we were hurried on to it, but without our passports, we tried to ask where they were, but no one told us. Anyway eventually after a lot of hassle we mangaged to cross both borders and get our passports back. Then we were stuck waiting for our bus which just didn't seem to be coming. Eventually a guy who was with us managed to talk us onto a different bus for the very reasonable price of $8. This bus was like paradise compared to the other one. When the bus dropped us off, we negotiated, very badly, 2 motorbike drivers to drive us and our luggage to our hostel - that was wicked and definitely don't regret that part. Finally at 6:30; 29 and a half hours after starting we arrived in Hue and then immediatley went to the nearest bar to help us forget the worst travel experience ever!

Hue is wicked though - Bex will tell you more about that in the next blog.

Lots of love to everyone

Rach and Bex. xxx