At five in the morning we found ourselves being shuttled by our hotel owner in Pakse to catch the bus heading over the border to Kontum, Vietnam.  Literally, the bus was already heading out of town and our friendly host flashed his lights to stop the bus and get us onboard.  Immediately as we got on we knew the ride would be less than ideal (however we did some considerable shopping around for this bus trip and got a great price).  Crammed under and in between all the seats on the minibus were boxes full of goods.  Naturally, there are no highways in Laos or Vietnam, and despite being a 13 hour journey, just about any local can commandeer a seat or standing area on the bus (for about a third of what we paid).  The journey took a bad turn when a large group of male workers jumped on the bus.  They chain smoked the rest of the day into Kontum and were annoyingly loud.  The only relief from the second hand smoke was opening the window as wide as possible.  At the included lunch stop, the friendly bus helper invited us to join at the family style meal, and gave us a bit of a lesson in how to eat the various dishes.
After an insignificant border crossing, we were so relieved to get out of the bus and into the bustling streets of Kontum.  Of course the bus stopped a few km out of the downtown area, so we began our walk, and stopped along the way to grab pho and a few banh mi.  We realized that the hotel was too far of a walk, so we quickly grabbed a taxi (luckily most taxi’s across Vietnam are reputable and always use the meter).  Fatigued, we retired to our private room at the Konklor hotel just happy to have made it.