Thakhek to Vientiane (Jan 7): Dreaded Bus Day

By Michael:

We we totally dooped! We bought VIP bus tickets as so far that has me at you get a bus seat, and the bus doesn’t stop much along the way. This was not the case as we ironically piled into “The King of Buses”. This bus looked like it had lived Kieth Richards life. Roaches crawling up and down the upholstered corners of the doors. Stained seats and cracked windows were the norm. We watched them load the bags into the baggage compartments till full. Then they loaded the downstairs part of the bus with a motorcycle, chickens, and bags of produce. We knew it was going to be an interesting experience but at least we had seats.

The bus started off slow, about 10mph. It really didn’t pick up speed until out of town then we stopped. I was confused as last i checked the seats were full. Then i saw the attendent hand the new passenger a plastic stool. This is when we knew – we were in the local bus. The local bus means they stop and pick up EVERYONE (queue Gary Oldman in Leon the Professional). Over the next 2 hours we stopped about 10 times until the bus was FULL. All seats filled, then the isles full of new passengers sitting on plastic stools.

It took us 3.5 hours to travel the 100km that Mera and I did on our scooter in 1.5 hours. Mera woke from a nap and was saddened to hear my report where we were. The 5.5 -6 hour bus day would easily be 7 hours.

Fun fact, most Asian people are lactose intolerant due to something genetic that Mera can speak more scientifically too. I’ll have her fill that in later. Another fun fact, Asians get motion sick. A lot. On every bus ride and flight we’ve been in there have been multiple pukers, and today was no exception. I generally deal with rough days with humor; i admittedly may take it too far at times. So at lunch I made many jokes about our Laotian travel companions actually being Roman. After vomittting all morning, they pulled off of the bus and jumped inline to order rice and stirfry, prepping themselves for another vom session in the afternoon. We laughed a bit, then sadly lived the joke in the afternoon.

Our luck continued as the air-conditioning broke about 3 hours out from the capital. Even the roaches looked hot!

We arrived into Vientiane around 4:30. The hotel was not what we expected which is a bummer as Mera worked really hard to find a nice place. Sie la vie! It was just one night. We headed across the street an bought minivan tickets to Vieng Van they next day. It’s supposed to be a 15 seat van, that only takes 3.5 hours to get there. We joked about some sacrifices and offerings to improve our travel luck!

We hadn’t eaten all day minus a cracker packet or two so we set off to find food. This was the first time in Asia we experienced places being closed on Sunday. We found a great Italian place where we enjoyed some fancy pizzas, bruschetta and fresh salad! With the BYGO deal they had it was a cheap meal that made us completely forget about the days travels. It was absolutely awesome! When we were done we paid, pushed away from the table and rolled home (think Violet from Willy Wanka).

We took some cool showers and climbed into bed!