The sleeper bus to Vientiane

Statue in Vientiane

Travelling from the 4000 Islands to the capital of Laos, Vientiane, proved to be a bit of an ordeal. In a classic case of over promising and under delivering, we booked a ticket on the V.I.P. over-night bus, thinking bewdy; this saves us a night’s accommodation and a day of sitting around on a bus.

After a half-day minibus journey to a city called Pakse (pronounced passé), we had to wait about 5 hours before we got on the sleeper bus. That wasn’t too bad though, it was scorching hot and we had an air-conditioned waiting room. Occasionally we would venture out and look at the local shops. We went and had some ‘street food’ and by about 7:30 pm got on the bus. It all looked pretty good; everyone had a bed on a bus that had 2 level bunks up both sides.

The VIP bus

Then a rude, control-freak, female bus conductor got on and when she found out that Kim and I were together she made us share one of the beds. As I was packing my bag she kept nagging me to move. So much for our VIP status! Another couple also had to share, but all the single people got to stretch out. I found out later that there were still some free beds. The problem was that the beds were made more for people much shorter than us, so you couldn’t really straighten your legs. As well as that it was hot and humid. As the bus lurched through the potholes and swerved around the corners and other vehicles, the motion made it almost impossible to sleep. Kim said she would never do another sleeper bus again, but later on we did, and believe it or not, the second trip was much worse than the first!

At Vientiane we arrived at a large bus station at about 7 am, feeling a little tired and peeved. We were immediately set upon by a rabble of took-took drivers wanting to take us into the city. They all talk at you at once, and as you can imagine, first thing in the morning after hardly any sleep, it feels a bit overwhelming. The price seemed reasonable at about $2 each into get into the city, so we got in one of the took-tooks. I remarked that the Lao took-tooks looked very large compared to the Cambodian ones. So next thing we are doing slow laps of the bus station as the took-took driver prowled for more tourists to fit in. “Strangely” the driver appeared to not understand us when we asked him when we would go to the city.  After maybe 30 minutes of prowling, he eventually found about another 8 tourists with their packs to cram into the took-took, then he took us into the city. 

Patu  Xay Monument, Vientiane

Thankfully we found a good hotel, and had a good cooked breakfast just up the road, we had a shower and started to feel human again. I don’t want to sound like I am whinging, just telling it like it is. Like in other times of hardship, it is often OK to laugh at them in hindsight. You can not expect Western standards of customer service in a 3^rd world communist country, rather you “go with the flow”.

We spent about two days in Vientiane taking in the sights, the French influence in food and architecture, a really nice Buddhist temple. We went too a French restaurant that was excellent – Kim had the roast lamb and veggies and I had duck which was superb.

The Mrs, proud to be winning

Before we left we went bowling. The bowling alleys are a free-for-all, where young blokes pelt the bowls into the air, slamming them into the alley, but somehow always hit their target – amazing to watch. I started off extremely poorly and didn’t even know how to hold the bowling ball correctly, while my sporty Mrs showed me up time and time again. Fortunately for me though I learned very quickly and soon gave Kim the flogging she deserved. We are both pretty competitive with each other, and the banter that goes with it is pretty good fun.

After a couple of days recuperating, we left Vientiane to catch another sleeper bus to our next destination Luang Prabang.