Travel: Kunming to Hanoi and back

Get Vietnamese visa from Vietnamese consulate. Takes 4 days. I forget the cost.

From Kunming, overnight bus to Hekou, the border. 140RMB, leaves at 7:30pm. Not so nice sleeper bus, the roads are rough. You could take a day bus that is supposedly nicer.

Cross the border and get ride to the train station. I forget prices from Vietnam. Maybe 5 or 10 thousand dong. I got right on a 9 hour train to Hanoi, hard seat, I forget the price. You could wait until night to take a sleeper.

Hanoi Backpacker's Hostel is a great place to stay, they picked me up from the train station. Beds are $5.50 US per night. Extremely clean and nice place, run by Australians. http://www.hanoibackpackershostel.com/ Use them to plan travel in Vietnam.

Repeated the journey a few days later. Overnight train to Lao Cai (Hekou on the Chinese side). Left at 11:30pm, unfortunately all the sleeper beds were gone so we took soft seats. Don't do this, wait until sleeper beds are available. It was horrible.

Cross the border and get an overnight bus back to Kunming, leaves at 7:30pm, pay attention to the 1 hour time change. China is an hour ahead of Vietnam. This bus is nicer, just try to ask for a bed in the front, not the back.

In Kunming, the Camelia Hotel Hostel is nice, I think 30 RMB per bed. It is called Cha Hua Bing Guan in Chinese. Or the Hump Hostel looked nice, I didn't stay there though. Google them.