hi
i would be taking the 24 hour bus from Hanoi to Vientiane soon. i have read many websites but not very current about the journey. so would love to hear from those who have done it recently (whats the bus like, which bus company to take etc.) because i am very nervous doing this alone as i am a solo female traveler.
Its called the "Fun Bus" and a must Ha! Ha! takes up to 20 hrs on a good day and 26hrs on other days and apparently is an adventure in itself and costs around $25 have fun Ha Ha! you wont be alone on it and will have friends for lifae after it lol ;-))
someone posted here that the bus emptied of locals just before the border and after they waited an hr or two and they all boarded again with their duty free goodies lol.
If Going from Vhin via route 8 Laos ie Cau Treo tell them you only want to go as far as Nahin get off here and from here take day trip a river that runs alkl way through mountain first Konglor Caves
then after take pick up to Junction route 13 and either stay overnight at junction GH and restaurant on right just before main rd cheap. and then after breakfast head on for Vientianne etc
http://www.ecotourismlaos.com/maps.htm
Its a long trip but not so bad. Took us 23hrs then all 11 Europeans on the bus (only a 22 seater, not a sleeper bus) hired a songthaew to go straight through to Vang Vieng.
We took the scientific approach of going to a few places selling bus tickets and finally chose the cheapest combined with the best looking photo of a bus. Didnt really matter as it turns out we all paid varying prices at different places. And the photo of the bus was nothing like the bus that took us as far as Vinh to get the smaller one. And we all took different buses to get to Vinh as well.
As for safety, I wouldnt worry,, just do the usual and keep your valuables with you.
I almost did it last week but decided to fly! i would be nervous about doing it but nothing to do with you being a solo female.
Hi,
I just did this bus trip and currently in Vientiane. It was one of the easiest border crossings ive done so far. None of the horror stories from the blgs ive read. Guess i was lucky. We were picked up by a Vietnamese guy from our guesthouse at 5.30pm on a Thursday and picked up more people along the way making a total of 16 foreigners. We arrived at the bus station at 7pm and left at 8pm. It was a sleeper bus with a toilet. Everyone had a seat and it was comfortable. We arrived at the border at 5.30am and waited till 7am for the border to be open. Once we stamped out of Vietnam (you pay $1 stamp fee), the bus driver was kind enough to bring us to the Laos side 1km away where we got our visas (another $1 stamp fee). Then off we go towards Vientiane - stopping 30 mins for lunch and arrived in Vientiane before 3pm!