I spent a night in Hue… At 6 am I was waiting for Camel Travel bus in front of my hotel… Yes, they put me on the excursion bus going to DMZ… I disembarked at Dong Ha – the driver put me on the local microbus to the border township of Lao Bao (70 km through the mountains). Then, after crossing border on foot I walked about 1 km to the first village in Laos. The next bus was waiting: it was local junk bus departing at 12.15 pm… The representative of Vietnameese Agencies Miss Be Lan bought for me a ticket for 20000 kip (like 2 USD). I arrived to Savannakhet at 17.30!
That’s how looks Vietnameese “special, direct tourist bus”. They just lie! You better go by local buses to Dong Ha and onward… you will save quite a lot of money! By the way: Miss Be will offer you “safe” money exchange. Smiling and looking into your eyes she will say: -In the bank in Laos they will give you 8000 kip per USD, but I will give you 8200! You will change some dollars. Later you will find that it is worth more then 9000 kip.
Do not change money at the Vietnam border! If you really need: only 5-10 USD… Sorry – I did. Not much… And this was the last cheat in Vietnam. Enough!
Now I am in Laos – hoping that they are not cheating foreigners here! We will see…
