Day 8

This day will best be remembered for the poor dirt road and the 2 enormous climbs in stifling heat. We needed a truck to help us with the second of the 2 climbs to get to the border on time and to make it to Vietnam alive. Dehydration was a definite possibility if we were to continue at the pace required. The border crossing was definitely the most relaxed and abandoned any of us have been to. Our first glimpses of Vietnam were very impressive, but this may have had something to do with the fact that the road was paved and more or less downhill or flat the whole time. We arrived in the resort oasis of Dien Bien Phu before dusk and celebrated the end of Marty and Matt's trip with a hearty feast and some local brew.