Week 20 The scam of all scams.

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Dear Blog,

All I can say is thank god for the Dali Lama!

So, as I mentioned already, I had heard from various travellers and read in the guide books that there was a scam afoot, selling travellers bus tickets to Laos from Hanoi that involved various modes of transportation including taxis, cramped minivans and dodgey old buses if you were lucky...so we took all necessary precautions and bought our VIP fully airconed bus tickets from a reputable tour company that we had several times before. I even grilled the poor girl who worked there for at least half an hour that we would only be on the one coach the whole trip...that the bus would have air con...that it would take us direct to our destination etc etc.

So with tickets in hand, me and alex set off to meet the bus. We were picked up by mini van 30 mins late...slightly unusual as normally public transport is v punctual, and taken to our bus, which didn't have air con and stank of diesel and moth balls. We were also told at this point that we would have to change busses at some unknown destination at 2am and catch another bus to take us into Laos. At this point Alex started quoting the Dali Lama's little book of wisdom to help calm me down as I was ready to punch someone. So full on scrap diverted , we set off, and arrived at 1am at the most revolting small road side cafe in the middle of nowhere (all I shall say is I wont be eating spinach again for a while). The bus driver gave us a replacement ticket and said that our bus would be there within the hour (I now recall that he had a slight smirk on his face at the time). So we waited...at about 3am we tried to ask the staff at the cafe if they knew anything about a bus to Laos, but they said something about 8 am...at the time I put this obvious confusion down to dodgey translation.

Anyway, about 10 minutes later a bus on its way to laos pulled up for a rest stop. Hurrah our bus, only an hour or so late...but unfortunately as it turned out this was not our bus...but a different company, and it was full of Laos folk not tourists and definately not VIP. They confirmed that we had non authentic bus tickets and there was not in fact a bus coming for us at all!! But, and this is where I regained some faith in human kind, they offered to take us with them. The only trouble was we had to endure the next 15 hours sat on our bags in the isle listening to non stop Laos music (a vast improvement from Vietnamese music I might say...a small mercy) while trying to control my horrendous travel sickness that I experienced after several hours on the winding mountainous roads. The only ray of light in the whole trip was the most stunning sunrise I have ever seen..but at this point both myself and Alex were a bit hysterical and slightly delerious, but it helped the hours pass and was certainly a good bonding experience.

The lovely bus conductor who spoke a little english helped us throughh the chaotic border controls, and we arrived in Laos breathing a sigh of relief. When we finally got to Vientiane we checked in to the nicest hotel we could find, showered and treated ourselves to a massage. Needless to say after all that, I'm still recovering, but at least I can look back and laugh. Just!

xxx

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