This was a typical Laos bus ride, without which no journey to the country is complete. Here is a bullet list of things that have happened to us while on Laos buses:-
- Breakdowns - (only 1h wait followed by everyone cramming onto an overgrown tuk tuk for another hour..... think 40 people in one minibus.
- Dogs (in plastic bags... head only out)
- Chickens (usually very large roosters carried under a locals arm, usually off to a cock fight we think)
- Pigs - again in sacks.
- Every bus is ALWAYS full this means plastic stools down the isle.
- If the sound system works it is on, full on, with whatever the drivers taste is... usually bad soft rock or local atonal stuff.
- Any local produce or things that people want to bring with them is just fine, you can never have too much luggage... roofs, sacks of rice (all down the isle on one ride.) an industrial size food mixer (4 of us to lift onto the bus then 5 more to heave it onto the roof. A moped on the roof is just standard. We were slightly concerned with the 12 large boxes labelled 'Fireworks'.
- All drivers make a little on the side by picking up more people just round the corner from the bus station... they sit on the floor by the front door well.
- A toilet stop every 2 hours..... where everyone tries to get off through the people sitting in the isles & 5 women try to get on to sell you meat on sticks (I enjoyed the 2 lightly BBQed sparrows I had for breakfast at Oudomsay). If the women are not off the bus before the driver is ready to leave they get an un-requested lift to the next village.
- Locals do not travel that much so a bus journey is rather an unusual occurrence for them.... which is why the bus boys, at least 2 on every trip, are always handing out sick bags which are always needed.
- The bus is always late.... both leaving and arriving. You just don't worry about it - it will arrive when it arrives. It will load and unload at the discretion of the driver and a help moving stuff around is appreciated.
- All the buses are old decrepit and would have failed a UK MOT in about 1995 and have been running ever since.
- How long the bus ride will take depends on the state of the road and the rains wash so much of the roads away annually any timetable will bound to be a best guess. As the roads and the vehicles improve it will obviously get better but for now the frontier feel of the place where you just do the best you can with what you have got works very well. Help is always at hand as to not stop if needed around here is impossible. If you are walking down a country road everyone who drives past will stop to see if you want a lift. The mobile phone has made such a massive difference to the lives of people around here it is difficult to comprehend.
The Mekong falls stopped Laos becoming part of both Cambodia, Siam and only an offshoot of the Kymer empires, plus it's a really beautiful place to be. We spent 3 days on the island of Don Dat.... and yes they have produced the 'Been there Don Dat' tee-shirt .... Another quiet Lao destination worth doing nothing much for a couple of days.... The sand is particularly fine and seems to get everywhere - unfortunately this included my camera. I'm not having much luck with cameras having now lost one and broken one. So sorry no pics.
Yesterday, the 17th Jan we left Laos having misread our visa resulting in us overstaying by a day.... (curses a 10$ fine each), and re-entered Cambodia. We are spending a quiet couple of days in Kratie in NE Cambodia , the bit we have not been to yet, then on to Phnom Penn.We have now bought a flight to Manila for the 20th where we intend to spend a while island hopping around the Philippines.
Hopefully pictures will be available on the next instalment!
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