Advertisement
Published: February 11th 2016
Edit Blog Post
We got up at 6am to see the morning alms giving ceremony, which happens just at the end of our road. The LP gives info about how to behave at this. Needless to say, a great number of tourists were totally non-respectful, which spoilt it for us.
At the end of our road there were women selling food for the monks. Really crappy snacks, cheap biscuits etc. Firstly, it isn't really something tourists should do, we are not Buddhist, and also it should be high quality rice in rice baskets, not ugly plastic trays or plastic bags. So we didn't buy anything. Apparently the rice sold is very poor quality and has made the monks sick! We could see a line of little plastic chairs, mostly empty, on the other side of the road, and a few monks walking along, almost completely obscured by group of Chinese tourists who were right next to them, taking photos in their faces with flash, talking loudly. We were disgusted, everything you are supposed not to do. You should watch from the other side of the road quietly, no flash. We walked up the road for a bit but weren't sure if we were
a bit late or not quite in the right place. one of the few locals we saw giving alms was the grandma from our guesthouse. Her son said she does it every morning.
Back to the guesthouse, being very quiet not to wake the 2 spare guests who had been accommodated on mattresses in reception under mosquito nets, no room at the inn anywhere as it is the end of Tet. Made tea and waited for our pickup. The non-arrival of the pickup in Sa Pa made us a bit anxious, but it came around 7.20 with 2 German women on board already. Price included in our ticket. The bus station was easy peasy. Went to the counter and swapped our travel agent ticket for 2 bus ones, with lunch voucher attached (also included- we couldnt wait to see what that was going to be like!) and we left on time at 8am. 9 hours to go, in theory.....
As we got on the bus it was clear that the VIP title didn't mean much. It smelt very much of Old Bus! It was full, backpackers and locals, like the ones in Cambodia, luggage and toilet downstairs, seats
upstairs. We had seats 9 and 10, so 3 rows from the front. At the front were some local women. One started vomitting at 9.30, followed by her buddy, then one behind her. They continued throughout the whole journey, into the tiny, flimsy plastic bags provided. We had sturdier ones ready in case but were fine. Sam had taken pills and slept a lot. A few of the tourists were also sick (it was the windiest and most beautiful road ever), but we thought maybe the locals are just not as used to travelling in buses etc so suffer more. Poor women, we thought, but they didn't help themselves by EATING LUNCH ANYWAY, which ruined their afternoon's travel. We had read that the buses can be very cold with the aircon, and the vents were impossible to close. My feet were freezing. Trainers would have been a better idea. Sam had one plaster in her bag, so stuck that over one vent and we wedged a tissue in the other, job done (See pic).The German ladies thought we were super clever and copied us.
We stopped after a couple of hours, 2000kip to use the toilet, spent about 50p
each on toilets throughout the day. They were manageable squatties, clean enough, but nowhere to wash your hands, so out came the hand sanitiser. Lunch was around 1.30 and the worst of the hairpin bends were over by then. The bus was so slow, it had to be, not sure how good the brakes were. Lunch consisted of 2 choices. Either cold rice, veg and meat (point to what you want) or noodle soup. Sam had gone for the first option, very annoyed the lady wouldn't heat it up. No idea how long it had been sitting there. I had the soup, but was cringing as the noodles were picked up and mauled about before the stock was poured on. Leave my freaking noodles alone, and I so hope you've washed your hands! We both thought we are bound to get sick from this food, but we didn't. Off again, every time the bus stopped the locals threw up, and although our ETA was 5pm, this time came and went with no sign of anything like a city nearby. We let some people off in Vang Vieng, which to be honest looked like a right hole, glad we didn't stay
there. The local lady in front of us had bought a snack from one of the stops. Sam thought at first it was dried fish on a stick, but it was actually 3 tiny birds, squashed flat, beaks and all. She broke a beak off and crunched on it. Eugh!
Finally rolled into the bus station 2 hours late. The scenery is breathtaking, through little villages along the way, amazing mountains and all green around you, but hard to take photos through the bus window. The road surface has a lot of really bad parts, huge potholes and clouds of dust that have coated the trees and made everything red. dont think that the sleeper bus would entail much actual sleep as we were thrown around a lot.
Eventually we rolled into the bus station. It looked official enough, unlike where we got dropped off in Cambodia. We had agreed to share a tuktuk with the German ladies, as their hotel was very near ours, but when we got off it was clear there was another mafia situation in operation. Big tuktuks for 12, flat rate of 20,000k for dropping off at hotels. No room for negotiation. Mafia
1:backpackers 0. We got on, hoping they would do as they said and had to pay upfront. It was dark and I had a map on my iPad, hope for the best. I could see which road we were on when he stopped and it looked OK, so we got off and the hotel was where he said, along the next street. Another girl followed us but hadn't booked, the one she tried first was full and so was ours, but we'd booked and got an upstairs room like I'd asked for.
We are at the Vientiane Star Hotel, a backpacker place and cost £17 a night for 2 with breakfast. Ok reviews on Tripadvisor! apart for the pic of someone with bedbug bites, but that was 2 years ago, and who knows if it was true or not. The room is big, one double and one single bed with mattresses like concrete. The negative reviews mentioned this, but we are used to these now, so no problem for us. There is a bedside table and no other furniture, no shelves or place for clothes. Luckily we are only here for 2 nights. A bit noisy, but quietened down
in the end. The young guys on the bar are very friendly and gave us ice for the bottle of wine which Sam bought in Hanoi and has travelled with us ever since. Couldn't be bothered to go out and eat so picnicked on Laughing Cow cheese and ritz yet again, with Oreos for dessert.
Tomorrow the plan is to go to the pool at the Mekong Riverside hotel (probably we will have to pay this time) and recover before flying to Vietnam tomorrow.
Kind of glad we did the bus, we think, better to get the 8am rather than 9am seeing that they totally lie about the journey length!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.054s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 7; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0297s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb