A word on Lao buses

Travel guides issue fair warnings about the buses in Laos. It's common for them to break down mid-journey or get a flat tire from extraordinarily bumpy roads. One might feel a certain sense of claustraphobia on even the smallest of journeys. I'm not complaining- I'm 4 for 4 in successful journeys, although on 2 or 3 of the rides we passed broken-down buses on the way, handing them supplies and tools that I hoped we wouldn't end up needing ourselves. To say the roads are bad simply wouldn't do it justice. These supposed highways are often piecemeal roads, patching together dusty red-dirt roads chock full of large rocks with sparse paved portions. Sometimes only one lane squeezes between the ledge of a cliff and the rise of another cliff, leaving oncoming traffic to sort it out. For the majority of the ride, we bump along, holding on to whatever we can.

From Luang Nam Tha to Udomxai, I sat next to a dude from Winston-Salem (small world!). On the other side of me, a Lao woman sat in the aisle in a pink plastic chair. She didn't look me in the eye or otherwise acknowledge me, yet every time we rounded a curve (often), she grabbed on to my thigh so as not to topple over. I grinned like a child the first time she did it, partly because it tickled and partly out of surprise. In between curves, she rested her hand on my knee as if it was her own. At one point, we stopped to let a passenger out and she propped her elbow on my leg, leaning the weight of her head on her hand. Since it was so dusty, most of the windows were closed, making for a sweaty ride. I packed an omlet and sticky rice for lunch, but it would have been impossible to eat the omlet with one hand grabbing my seat for balance and my elbows constrained to my sides. I managed to munch on some sticky rice.

On my ride from Udomxai to Nong Khiaw, we packed 13 adults, 3 kids and one driver into a Toyota van. All our luggage and a mountain bike rode on top. Miraculously, the seat next to me remained empty the whole ride, meaning I could sit sideways instead of jamming my knees into the seat in front of me. The driver passed out plastic bags before we took off and the Westerners looked at each other nervously. Barf bags. It was a windy road, but no one threw up (thankfully). I quite enjoyed it actually. We stopped on the side of the road for a bathroom break- into the woods I went. The driver bought some prickly bamboo shoots along the way and distributed them in villages we passed through. Three Lao men sat in the row behind me. I offered them soynuts and we all laughed as I tried to pour them into their hands while the van bumped along.

The four hour journey from Nong Khiaw to Luang Prabang was in the back of a sangthaew, a truck bed with two benches lining the sides. We had 15 people in there at one point and it was by far the most uncomfortable of my journeys so far in Laos. At least we had the wind blowing through our hair!

For my final adventures in Thailand, click HERE.