Vietnam - 2007

I had a 4-week Indochina trip in May-June 2007.
(Melbourne – Bangkok – Thailand – Laos - Vietnam - Cambodia -Thailand – Bangkok - Melbourne)

After a week in Laos we entered Vietnam at the Lam Phau (Laos) - Cau Treo (Vietnam) border crossing.
 It took us about half an hour to exit Lao and pass through Vietnamese immigration.
  That was not as bad as our tour leader has encountered in the past.
 There are too many officials, all under employed, with 3 checks of our passports.
 Also you notice on the tollways here in Vietnam there are 2 separate booths
 - one to buy the ticket and futher on one to collect it.

An unimpressive first sight of Vietnam ...


You notice straight away how much more orderly Vietnam is compared to Laos.
  The streetscapes are much more planned and constructed.






Snake wine


The roads are chaotic - trucks, horse-drawn carts, cow-drawn carts, cows, goats,
 motorcycles, cycles, pedestrians, almost everything except the kitchen sink share the narrow roads.
  Even the main road linking Hanoi and Saigon is like this.


We stayed overnight at Ninh Binh and travelled to Halong Bay the next day.