I am up at 5am. The town radio waking me before my alarm clock. I say farewells to Anna, unable to sleep through radio Laos too and I head one last time across the rickety old bridge. There are 3 westerners and luckily there is a bus today. I chat and have a coffee with the German girl, French girl and her cousin. I sleep till the laos border crossing. I hand over the exit doc and head the 5km in the bus to the Vietnam border. I fill in a medical form and my visa is validated. Back on the bus to Don Pien. Hopefully I will get a night bus to Sapa.
The road from the border is still under construction. The winding narrow deathtrap still shows signs of Laos with the sweeping mountains. This starts to give way to many paddy fields and a small quarry town.
Cornfields as far as the eye can see stretch into the distance.
We reach Don Pien and the 4 westerners sort their plans. Myself and the German Melissa book tickets for the 5:30pm night bus to Sapa. Audrey the French girl and her cousin are going later to Hanoi. We wander to a local restaurant and order noodle soup with tofu. Test out the local beer and get to know each other. We have most of the afternoon to kill and a hostel kindly let's us stay in the reception area using the WiFi whilst drinking a few beers. First time I've seen WiFi for days as Muang Khua is barely geared for tourists. I say cheerio to Audrey, her company a delight, her cousin disappeared on a walk somewhere. Melissa and I trudge through the rain to the bus station. The sleeper bus is designed for midgets and I squash into a top bunk.
There are 3 aisles of beds and mine is in the middle. The whole aisle gets moved to the left to allow people to sleep on the floor. I don't sleep much but at Sapa I realise my bag strap is trapped between the beds. The driver is screaming for me to get off but I almost drag him to the bed to show him. He begrudgingly gets a spanner to realise it.