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Last Picture of Duncan
When we left him Duncan was considering becoming a pineapple salesman. As far as we know he may still be doing this.This entry will focus not on a certain city or region but on the hellish journey we embarked on from Saigon, Vietnam to Vang Vieng, Laos. We left Saigon at 11 A.M. April 18th and arrived in Vang Vieng (Minus Duncan) at 1:00 A.M. on April 21st. The following may be disturbing to younger readers.
The whole reason we were going to Hanoi, Vietnam was that this was the departure point for sleeper buses to Laos. We could have flown straight from Saigon, but in an effort to save money we opted for the longer route. We arrived at the Saigon airport at 11:15 A.M. for our 1:00 P.M. flight only to be told that it had been delayed until 7:00 P.M. What a great start! We spent the following six hours in the Saigon airport reading, playing cards, and running through our IPod batteries. In retrospect the air conditioned comfort of the airport made this one of the nicer parts of our journey.
We arrived in Hanoi at 9:30 P.M. which meant we were too late to catch that evening's sleeper buses to Laos. We spent the night at a hotel and woke up to find out the
sleeper buses for that night were fully booked and we would need to take a normal sitting bus. At this time Duncan decided after much deliberation to forego Laos and instead spend his remaining time in the hill villages of Northern Vietnam. So it was that Curtis and I boarded a shuttle to the bus station at 5:30 P.M. on April 19th. The "Station" was just a bunch of backpackers and locals standing on the road waiting for the bus to come. It finally showed up at 7:30 P.M. and we began our overnight journey happy to find out that our seats reclined. Some people on our bus were in a much rougher position than we were. They had been screwed by whoever they bought their tickets from and were now looking at spending the duration of the 24 hour trip sitting in the aisle!
There was no bathroom on the bus so it made frequent stops for people to relieve themselves on the side of the road, girls included. We also stopped way too many times for food which would involve all of the lights being turned on and people getting off. Asian pop music played throughout the
Road in Laos
Beautiful scenery in hindsight. trip and the overhead lights seemed to be turned on and off at random. We were roused for the border crossing at 6 A.M. and got off the bus, only to find out the border did not open until 7 A.M. The border crossing itself was hectic and very confusing and ended up taking the better part of two hours.
The rest of that bus ride went relatively smoothly and we arrived in Vientiane, (The capital of Laos) at 3:00 P.M. on the 20th. It seemed like things were starting to go our way as a bus was leaving for Vang Vieng at 4 which would get us to our destination by 8 P.M. We boarded it and were two of only four foreigners on the bus. This ended up being a very local bus exemplified by the cooped chickens that were riding on the roof. The bus had no AC but this wasn't really an issue because when it was moving cool air blew through the windows. It became a bigger issue when the bus broke down at 6 P.M. in the middle of nowehere, rural Laos. We spent the next four hours alternately sitting in the bus
In the Aisle
Does that look comfortable? and sitting on the side of the road as first a mechanic and then a new bus were called to our location. Luckily, the other two foreigners were friendly British girls so Curtis and I at least had other people to talk to.
The new bus arrived around 10 P.M. but was already filled with passengers. I was forced to sit on a plastic stool in the aisle while Curtis stood beside a man holding a caged chicken. At this point we were exhausted and more than a little frustrated. We were dropped off on a gravel airstrip in Vang Vieng at 12:30 A.M. with no instructions on how to proceed. We were able to get a tuk tuk ride from a lady who brought us to a cheap but dirty hotel on the edge of town. Too tired to care we collapsed into bed at 1 A.M. making it 62 hours since leaving Saigon. Actually, Curtis showered before bed and to top it all off found a leech in the shower.
There you have it, a complete description of how not to travel from Saigon to Vang Vieng. Luckily for us Vang Vieng was an awesome place
Curtis is Not Impressed
We spent most of the first bus ride playing Monopoly on Curtis' IPod. This was after the battery ran out. Curtis is very angry. that made the journey worth it. Check out the next entry for tales of days filled with booze and borderline dangerous activities.
P.S. I apologize for the lack of interesting photos to accompany this entry. The thing is that when you are tired, frustrated, and dirty, taking pictures is not your first instinct.
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Stacey
non-member comment
Scott, sounds like an episode of The Amazing Race! Looking forward to your next post.