Sitting on the Vietnam side of the border at Cau Treo having just past through passport control and customs. The Vietnamese border can be very tricky and we are waiting for one of our group members that had a mistaken "complete" stamp on their multi-entry visa, even though the problem was supposedly taken care of by the Vietnamese consulate in Vientiane. What a pain! It has been about three hours since we left Lao and entered the "no mans land" between the two countries.
Leaving Lao was easy, the man just took a quick look at my passport and stamped it. At this point we drove into "no mans land" which is about a mile-long hill up to the Vietnamese border station. Incredulously, the area between the two border control stations is completely full of smuggling trucks and a busy smuggler's market. As many as a hundred trucks are parked just beyond the site of the Vietnamese officials. Truthfully the trucks may be just out of site, but clearly the Vietnamese know they are there. It is strange. Assumingly money changes hands and the goods are taken up over the hill parallel to the border to an unsecured spot and then smuggled in. Trucks containing liquor, electronics, refrigerators, and the coveted Red Bull energy drink all wait for someone to risk the trip. As we waited a few shady characters in fatigue green hovered close peering into our bags with menacing smiles. This was not a comfortable place.
Then we met the Vietnamese border officials. Dozens of redundant people some with similarly menacing looks. I had the luxury of going last thanks to my blue American passport. Thankfully, my papers were in order and besides looking at every page twice they let me through. Not everyone fared as well as I.
Besides the redundant officials, other characters shoved past, some skipping the queue, some lackeys of the redundant officials. It was an interesting experience. It turned out the one passport that was out of order took several "calls to Hanoi" and finally a $20 bribe. Make that $21, since we all started with the standard $1 bribe. Apparently "calls to Hanoi" and a slow process are the keys to successful bakshish.
Now we wind our way down the steep hills of North Vietnam enroute to Vinh and then Hanoi. I'm reunited with Vietnam after more than three years.
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