Day 15 - Luang Prabang to Vientiane

Grr...

We woke early, were picked up by a tuk tuk and transported to the bus station. This was an "express" bus that would take 10 hours to reach the capital city of Laos, Vientiane. The bus was in worse shape than a public city school bus in the state of Mississippi, but we at least had decent seats. The bus drivers in China and Laos make some extra money along the way on these long trips by picking up additional passengers on the side of the road and pocketing the money. The new passengers sit in a seat if they have one or on a stool in the aisle that the bus drivers have brought along for such purposes. For the first 6 hours, it seemed as though we were the national highway public transportation bus service of Laos as the loaded and unloaded passengers. It was hot, dusty, and quite miserable, but it was cheap (obviously) and finally dropped us off in our location 12 hours later.

We had already booked the nicest hotel we had stayed in a while, a Novotel, and it was a nice change after 2 straight weeks in hostels.

Jamie and I have spent a total of 55 HOURS on bus rides these last 15 days. Perhaps a bit crazy, but most of that goes with the territory of traveling in Southeast Asia. Unless you have some mad cash to throw around on plane flights, you'll have to take busses and trains. Laos does not have a train system, so busses it is along winding, curvy roads picking up and dropping off passengers along the way.

On to Bangkok in the morning...