ice manages the trip in three. Buses to Hanoi depart at 17:30 every day (US$9) with stops in
An Phu 11 Nguyen Tri Phuong. Bus leaves 8.00 AM and 1.30 PM.
From Vientiane You can book a sleeping or sitting bus for 180,000Kip (sleeping is the same price as sitting) to Hue or continue to Da Nang from the Southern Bus Terminal. The trip takes 15 hours to Hue so the sleeping bus is the better choice. Departure time for just Hue/Da Nang is 7pm although at Vientiene's southern bus station you'll also see other options heading south and you could probably take those as well.
You'll have a couple bathroom stops (bathrooms not necessarily available) and at least 2 or 3 eating stops.
They'll try to arrive at the Lao Bao border crossing before it opens at 7am. Here is where they'll collect every ones passports to get stamped out of Laos. Everyone needs to include a 15,000Kip fee (foreigners may end up getting asked for 30,000Kip) so have that ready in your passport ahead of time. You'll also have several ladies asking if you need to change any money. They'll come in the bus or roam around the bus stop. Be careful and shrewd with them. If you just hand them some kip without establishing what rate your getting or not even bother to count how much you gave you'll end up with a lousy 50% or 1:1 rate so you've lost half your cash! (Probably best not to exchange anything as you'll have no chance to actually buy anything with your Dong until you reach your destination. However, you might no be able to exchange your Kip when you're in Hue. So plan ahead!)
Meanwhile, as this is going on you'll be served some Vietnam coffee. All meals and the coffee break should be included in your ticket price and then you have to pay for anything additional that you order.
Once you reach Hue you can get dropped off before the actual Hue bus station and maybe save yourself having to ride into town on a hired motor bike. (Oct. 2010)
From Pakse VIP (not
