The VIP Bus

The VIP bus is anything but.  The only indication that it is in fact the VIP bus are the huge letters emblazoned across the front windshield that read "VIP."  The seats are all made of the plastic pleathery material that makes you sweat when hot, the seat numbers are scrawled in permanent marker on the backs of the seats, and the rest of the interior is in various states of disrepair.  As I write this an unknown liquid substance is dripping on me from a crack in the shelving above my seat.  Attempts to stem the flow of the dripping with the ugly green curtains have so far proved unsuccessful.

 A sarcastic thumbs-up from Court

Several of the windows are cracked from what appear to be bullet holes but are hopefully just from stones being thrown at the bus by kids as it passed through one of the many villages that line the road.  Probably not though. I'm pretty sure I saw one of the guys that loaded our bags onto the bus carrying some sort of machine gun over his shoulder, loosely concealed by his jacket, which seems to suggest that buses being shot at is not completely unheard of.

Bullet or rock?

 

Court is asleep next to me, mouth open wide, catching up on the sleep we missed out on last night on account of our 5am start to go and watch the monks receive their morning alms.  I don't know how she does it.  The roads are so windy and bumpy, I struggle just to stay upright in my seat.

I finished my book an hour ago and it looks like we still have several to go.  A stop for lunch was promised when we bought our ticket but I'm not so sure now as we pulled over a short distance back, apparently so that anyone needing to relieve themselves could do so in the bushes.  The break was not a moment too soon for one young Lao woman who proceeded to throw up several times on the ground beside the bus as she held her baby next to her so he could go potty.  Now there's some multitasking.

Looking around the bus to occupy myself I notice that the emergency hatch in the roof that is commonly found, and probably mandatory, on buses is sealed shut with what looks like a piece of kitchen countertop.  Also just noticed that the holder for the little hammer that is supposed to be used to break the window in an emergency is missing.  Apparently once you're on the VIP bus, you're on it.

The curtain seems to be holding for now but I fully expect it to collapse at some point, one drop too many, and soak me in my seat.  Court is still sleeping.  Lucky girl.  Maybe if I put the pen down I'll be able to catch a few winks before the curtain gives.

Update:
We've been on another VIP bus since this was written and it was sooo much better than this one.  The windows were in tact, seats comfy, no leaks, TV.  It even had a quite fetching design on the outside.  Apparently not all VIP buses are created equal.

Now THAT'S a VIP bus!

Vang Vieng - taken down by one of our own

After a month of living dangerously, dining out at street stalls, pointing at unknown foods and saying "yes please, I'll have some of that," munching on hairy pieces of pork, and thoroughly enjoying every minute of it - we were finally taken down by one of our own.  Craving a bit of a change from rice and noodles we decided to treat ourselves to something delicious, familiar, and undeniably western - steak and ale pie and chips.  Yum. Seemed like a great idea at the time but what followed suggested otherwise.

We spent the next 48 hours inside our room.  Well, that's not entirely true.  We surfaced briefly to move to another guesthouse just down the road so that we could have the luxury of television to occupy us when we weren't on the toilet.  Based on how we both felt we knew that we'd be bunkering down for a while so we justified the extra expense.  Incidentally, the Domon Guesthouse in Vang Vieng is a lovely place with big, bright, and airy double rooms with ensuite bathrooms and satellite TV for only 80,000 kip.  Highly recommended for the sickly and happy and healthy alike.

Despite our condition, we still managed to squeeze in some fun while in Vang Vieng.  The most popular activity in town is getting as drunk as possible while tubing down the Nam Song River.  It's basically spring break SE Asia.  We decided to give that a miss and go for something a little more, er, sensible.


We booked a 1-day excursion with a company called Wonderful Tours.  All the companies seem to offer pretty much the same excursions for similar prices but this outfit seemed to be the most organized, and besides, we liked the owner who was full of energy and spent about 20 minutes persuading us that his company was the BEST in all of Laos.


He was a man of his word.  We really enjoyed the tour.  We spent the morning tubing through a cave, then after lunch we kayaked about 10 kilometres back to town, with a brief stop for some "carb-loading" at one of the many bars that line a small section of the river and mainly cater to the aforementioned tubing crowd.  The whole day cost us 100,000 kip each and was well worth it.