La La La Laos

I’d like to say I sit here in Laos’ sleepy capital, Vientiane, contemplating the meaning of life while enjoying the refreshingly air conditioned, overpriced coffee shop I find myself currently in, but the fact of the matter is that I am feeling incredibly lazy. We have yet to see much of Laos and that is most likely due to the unpleasant journey we endured getting here, which left us exhausted and in need of massages.

In addition, I think I feel lazy as a result of being overwhelmed. We have three weeks left to our trip but the two we allotted for Northern Thailand is in serious jeopardy due to political unrest in both Bangkok and Chiang Mai. We can’t seem to make a decision on what to do, but at the same time, we must decide what to do before leaving Vientiane in order to make arrangements. The current plan now seems to go back to Vietnam and buy more tailor-made outfits. BOOM.

But back to our journey from Vietnam to Laos…

I had prepared myself for the 24 hour bus journey it would take to get from Vietnam to Laos, but I did not expect to be scammed by my supposedly trustworthy travel agent. We had been very lucky in our travels through Vietnam even though each journey started out relatively sketchy. Leaving Hanoi, however, took a terrible turn for the worse. I like to think I can trust my instinct which is why I realize now I had such a bad feeling as we met the guy who was supposed to be taking us to the bus.

Normally, a van picks us up at our hotel and then takes us to the bus. This time, we went to the travel agency and were picked up by a guy who asked us to follow him. He then led us a few blocks away and asked us to wait at another travel agency. Then he came back and had us follow him and wait on a street corner. Finally, he came back and put us in a van. Talking to the other passengers, it seemed most of us had similar experiences. It was easy to laugh off until another one of the guides turned around and told us there would not be enough beds on the sleeper bus and some of us would have to go on a coach bus with seats.

Everyone decided to band together and insist we get seats, but the story took a surprising twist when it turned out that the travel agency did not even have a bus for us. We were taken to the bus station where we were told that only four sleeper beds would actually be available. Everyone started yelling at our guides but then some of us decided to accept coach seats just to get out of the country. To my horror, just as things started to calm down, one British girl tore two tickets out of the guides hand and told everyone to f**k off, she and her friend were getting two beds and didn’t care about anyone else.

In the confusion, our guides scattered and so Jordan and I were left trying to get on a coach bus with four other foreigners. There were no seats left so we found ourselves putting our packs on the floor and lying on top of them. Everyone was completely confused and couldn’t believe the situation. As the Vietnamese inquired as to why we were sitting on the floor, they were equally appalled at our story.

Although at that moment I thought I wanted to cry, it was also one of those moments where I was able to look around and say, well it could be worse. Everyone on the bus was extremely nice to us and one woman even shared her sticky rice with us. We had also been given plenty of snacks by Mom Lee that we could pass around to share. Most of the night was spent curled up in different positions and trying out new ones, but it actually managed to go by quickly. Even the border crossing was relatively uneventful even though at one point our bus drivers asked us to walk through the fog for about 10 minutes between the two different border posts.

So I have just finished my overpriced caramel frappe, told you about my border crossing, and now it is time to go book tickets to Vang Vieng. Tomorrow we head to Laos' tubing capital. As in inflatable tubes and going down the river. What makes this especially spectacular is the fact that every 10 meters down the river there are bars. Yes and yes.

PS Check out some pictures of the border crossing: