The Bus

Here's a picture of myself attempting to enjoy a book on the extremely bumpy backseat of the bus. Allison thought it was very humerous how close I was forced to stick my nose into my book.

Here's a local Laos gentlemen vomiting into a puke bag. He was an arms lenth away from our seat and was one of the many reasons we moved to the back of the bus.

On Wednesday morning we woke up early to catch our VIP bus (so they call it) to Luang Prabang. When booking this trip we had three options of travel....the white-knuckle speedboat ride where people die yearly, the two day slow boat ride where people die of boredom and bleacher butt, or the 12 hour VIP bus ride. We decided on the bus, but after a full day of hairpin turns and obnoxious turbulence we questioned our choice. Probably the worst part of the entire trip was the door that didn't close, which allowed dust and dirt to consistently pour into the bus and coat everything including US. When we finally arrived in Luang Probang everyone had an attitude. The Italian couple sitting in front of us was fighting (in Italian) and trust me they don't hold anything back. The fight continued outside the bus where she threw a rock at the guy. There was also a very angry German man, who by the end of the trip was trying to physically force the door shut. It was quite humorous to Nic and I. We claimed the back of the bus early on and it was nice because you could kind of lay out. The only problem with the back is that it's the bumpiest spot, we were airborne more than once. The other worst part of the trip was the Lao boy who was sick the entire time....literally filled up about 3-4 bags of vomit. This was one of the reasons we moved to the back....just looking at it made me queasy. I may sound like the whole thing was a complete and utter mess (which it was), but the one good thing about the trip was the scenery. We got to experience the countryside and got to witness how untouched the country is. We passed many roadside villages and saw how people were living. The beautiful mountains were never out of sight. Looking back maybe the slow and boring boat would have been a better choice, but we made it in semi-good spirits.