Naluang 汽車站 到 河內市

It was better that I expected. I've read all the reviews before and was expecting something worse. The bus left on time. It's was Wednesday so the bus didn't have a toilet or outlets to charge phones. We didn't experience racism, we were just sitting in front of the bus when they called us and we got on. The seats were pretty comfortable and sleapable. There were 2 seats together and then one - on the side, so couples could sleep next to each-other. The driver knew a few English words but even without it we could have basic communication about stops and border crossing. The driver was not very friendly, but it was okay. The second driver was more attentive and helped us to search for lost headphones. The first toilet stop was in 2-3 hours at approximately 9 PM and the drivers yellled "toilet" so it was easy to understand. I recommend taking this change because there were no toilet stops until 8AM when we reached the border. The toilets in Laos side of the border were manageable, no paper though so make sure to have it. Also, make sure you don't put on the clothes you don't want to get dirty, because the border crossing was muddy. We had passports and Vietnamese E-Visa so there were no problems crossing the border. At first we went to Laos border and they checked our e-visas. Then we walked like 3-4 minutes and got to the Vietnamese side, took bags from our bus and got also checked for our passports and e-visas as well as bags. No queue and no extra fee. After that, we walked again for 4-5 minutes and stopped at a covered area (like a bus stop) after the barrier, where we got picked by our bus. We didn't have to walk a lot at all. The whole proess took us 1-1.5 hours. We stopped to eat at 1:30-2PM (there was a toilet there) and then didn;t stop anymore. At 5PM, we echnaged busses because our bus had to be repaired and got a bus with 3 rows with separate beds. We got to Hanoi 1.5 hours later. The roads were a bit bumpy in Laos, but got better in Vietnam. But the driver honked very frequently in Vietnam (apparently, that's normal in Vietnam). Overall, it was pretty good for such a long drive. Nothing to be scared of.