at our leisure in Laos

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Hello all
How are things? So we have arrived in Laos! Just a quick update of the journey here
So we spent our last day in Hanoi. It was not a city for us! Just too rat race mentality I think. Anyway others liked it, but you need to like that bustling city life and have your wits about you for the traffic.
So we set out on our 20 hour journey (or so we were told) from Hanoi on the 10th at 7pm on a lovely cushy bus. Free water and towels and, wait for it, a toilet! Small mercies like this make me so much happier! So, we were supposed to change bus at 1.30 am, what kind of bus operates at 1.30 in the morning u say? We wondered also, turned out we were dropped at this kinda café-dodgy looking spot- at about 2.30 and waited for a bus until bout 3.15, thankfully there were 5 of us. Then the bus arrived-all Asians sprawled out all over the place asleep. We left after about an hour and slept for some of the journey. As promised the seats did recline although I think a more accurate description would be, thy were broken, altogether wonkey, 1 or 2 were soaked and not what anyone would call clean. Air conditioning was, well, windows or holes in the floor/windows and the breath of the other passengers. We did get 2 seats each, thank god; the people are pretty small so we needed the extra room. The driver was fairly speedy, I was airborne at least 10 times, that’s what I get for sitting on the back seat. We managed to get to the border where it was dam cold and seriously foggy, and met some happy Laos people on the other side, a nice change from Vietnam. The country side was lovely, sprawling hills of rock, people wandering the roads, all dressed colorfully and every now and then a cluster of wooden houses on stilts, very primitive looking. The scaffolding is made of branched here, much more appealing to the eye than our metal ones but defiantly not as safe. We experienced, as the lonely planet warned, a series of breakdowns. The bus couldn’t cope with the heat, so we kept cutting out, all the fumes of smoke and whatever else filled up the bus and we had to bail out until the drivers fixed it. He kept letting it cut out, and when it god going he took the hairpin bends at a hair raising speed ( again many moments of levitation in the back seat) on the other side of the road of course. The people just slept all over the place, on the floors, seats, on top of each other, hanging out of the seats. Our pit stops -besides the many break downs, was once, in Laos, we just saw a lorry load of dogs in cages passing so needless to say we weren’t all that hungry for the pinkish meat they were serving. WC conditions were lavish- i.e. the bushes had foliage so we were only half visible. So we got here 24 hours later, smelly and dirty and wrecked. Vientiane is a lovely place. No horns or irate drivers here. All calm and smiley, laid back happy people. Tis bloody hot though. Thank bad our mission to buy cloths in Hanoi was unsuccessful! So couple days of relaxation, cafes coffee, cool drinks, possible a massage (for a 5 dollars!) and look round the town tomorrow and maybe book a trip. How bad! The journey was grand, we expected it and it only cost 15 dollars - poor drivers, they are great-fixing and pushing the bus, it a tough job. Don’t fancy it again though-would prefer being airborne in a different way! So this was boring but we are in a air conditioned internet place avoiding the heat so had to write something.
Any news? Anybody?
Take care, toodles
Gracie

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Comments

[roisin]

really enjoying the blog, keep it coming! Careful on the buses! Roisin B