bus ride 2

So this bus ride was on a VIP bus, meaning it's newer, faster, has air, reclinging seats and this one even had a TV.

Sam Neua to Vang Vieng was the plan (the bus was going to Vientiane but we were getting off here in Vang Vieng). And because it was faster it would leave 5 hours after the other ones but arrive at around the same time ...5AM the next morning. Of course that was the plan.

Because of a summit that was going on in Vientiane foreigners weren't allowed into the city and university students etc. got sent home. This bus ride was onhe that saw a lot of them heading back to school. And with them came their suitcases. Also with them, or whoever was on the bus came bags of rice (as usual), but also came more and more and more and mroe people (with mroe rice of course). There were 46 seats full of people, then there were easily another 20+ people in the aisle. I would say they weer standing except they were all sitting on teh rice and other bags that were stacked teh entire length of teh aisle (right to the steps oput the door) about 3 feet high. This bus has compartments underneath...supposedly to preclude teh need for a roof rack...guess what, they had to tie a tonne of bags on the roof anyway, just to make room for all teh people. INSANITY!!!!!!!

I don't want to judge, but I really have to think some people in Laos jsut aren't thinking...because this bus was far and away above any other bus I have seen here. There's something wrong with your brain if you thought wedging this many people with this much stuff on a bus would go off without a hitch. Even teh almighty VIP can't handle it. VIP, which by the tiem teh bus got rolling meant newer than a regular bus, same speed, seat with a bit of tilt, Karaoke on teh TV, but no air. Once they realized they had to move what they'd created teh air stopped ... I assume so the engine didn't die.
On the trip some hose popped, a break stopped working and a tire went flat. After that the driver slowed down even more, just to make sure teh bus made it. Maybe it's because I some from a place of maxuimum occupancy that this is opbvious to me but things, even metal buses, can only carry so much. No matter how much kip you think you're making on this one monster run, in the long run your pretty VIP bus is tyurning into a shit mobile, rattling around like the rest of them. Heh whatever.

I actually really enjoyed the ride, probably because I had seat adn because of delays to fix things we got to our destination around 10AM...much prefer arriving with light. Buses here leave in teh morning and arrive when still dark (if it's a really long journey) but we found the two that broke down enough to get us into town in daylight. Giuliana was in aisle and had various people leaning on her and sharing her foot space...but at least we weren't the two Danes who got on about 5 mins before departure adn decided to get off at some tuiny town along the way.

FUN!