LAOS: 20hrs bus ride

Wow it was the worse bus ride ever so far during this trip. I felt like a zombie. We decided to leave Chiang Mai coz nothing else we can do, such a nice and small city but we had enough. 2 days ago Shea bought 2 tickets to Laos straight bus to Vang Vieng (we should have stayed in Vientiane- the capital city ) but then we thought we will be tired anyway so just face it!. we were exhausted, 20 hours bus ride.. the bus left at 6pm, we checked out from the hotel at 11. Half day left in Chiang Mai we did nothing, I surfed in internet while Shea went to the pool, what a boring day, anyway we were the first passengers they picked, good thing coz we got the chance to pick the seat.. I chose the one right behind the driver,, coz bigger space. It was a small Van. It took an hour just to pick another passengers, this van just drove us to the border of Thailand which was 12 hours ride. The driver informed us, he will stop and take a rest every 100KM. I was kinda scared, this young man drives himself for 12 hours with-out no sleep. Unlike my country or other Asian countries I have visited. Thailand has a very good and smooth road. So 12 hours passed and I didn’t have any problem.

Around 5am we arrived in the border, the travel agent gave us simple breakfast toast and eggs. (I don’t eat breakfast at 5am, but I ate it anyway coz I was hungry). They took our passport and photo then we had to wait for an hour. To the border they dropped us. what I learn from school, South East Asian countries have this agreement so we Asian don’t have to pay VISA to enter the country) that’s what my cousin and uncle (who works in immigration department) also said but the fact I have to pay as much as those western countries. (I heard that the immigration officer such a corrupt just like my country, they wont let anyone in at least they got some money), anyway we paid $30 and $1 for officer (I guess) so we ended up paying $31, the rate is vary of each countries. but what I notice so far, American always has the high rate that’s why Shea uses his Australian passport.

While we were queuing for our visa, the van who dropped us just dumped our belongings on the road (I was thinking, ah probably the van will wait in the other side coz we have to go to the X-ray scanning) ah, just like Cambodia-Thailand’s border, the X-ray is NO required.. we just walked in with our bags . wow so easy as long as u pay for the Visa ( I mean so easy also for those who smuggles the drugs within Indochina countries). our van has gone back to Thailand, but this small n old van awaited in the Loas’ border. It drove us to the travel agent in Laos. As far as I could see, the city is very nice, clean and quiet (unlike Jakarta or Bangkok) I couldn’t find neither tall buildings nor malls etc. off n on the bus.. Gosh! They took as to a bigger bus (the 4^th exchanged buses so far). But yes we are in LOAS.. seems like things are still un-touch, undeveloped all I saw were tress, rice field, mountain along the road.. beautiful. the road was crazy, going up the hills, zigzag none of us could sleep. the bus went so slow, the driver talked on the phone couple times while driving… crazy hey!!, what Shea read on Lonely planet, this country is way lay back,,, everything goes slow.

We finally got to the Vang Viang at 2ish pm such a small city "i call this a village" i think i could count the houses..anyway we all beat up, tired and hungry. We had no idea where to go but followed the others backpack. 5 minutes walked then I realized I forgot my sneakers, ahh Shea ran back to the bus but it’s gone, my sneakersr gone. They took it within 5 minutes… oh MAN!! Now I only have my old n ugly purple sandal (lonely planet tips: never leave or forget anything coz they will take it). We walked and checked some guesthouses, the rate are between 70.000-400.000 kipas ($8 - $40) per night which is cheap. We found this guesthouse called “Saysong” for 80.000 kipas ($9) nice room with 2 beds, TV, internet, Air con and fan plus hot shower but on top of all is the magnificent view behind our hotel, a river n a series of beautiful mountains / hills, foggy and green mountains, beautiful. we had long hot shower, felt so good and fell asleep around 5ish, I slept till morning.