Luxury.... HA!

It's strange when you start to get excited about things like - hot water, clean bed sheets, a room that isn't near a rooster, power at any time of day, no bugs or GIGANTIC spiders, windows in your room, screens on those windows.... the list goes on.

We came into the country being mislead by the taxi driver who purposely dropped us off at the wrong place, to get commission from the hotel he took us to and our way out of the country was also deceiving, leaving a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth.

We paid for a "luxury" 22 hour bus ride to a particular city in Laos. We had just come into Hanoi from the stunning "Halong Bay" that we stayed at on an island for 5 days, swimming in the ocean, strolling around, trekking and other things. Our old hotel was trying to sell this 22 hour bus ride to us at 50 dollars a person, we found a better deal for 24 dollars a person just down the road. We get on the bus and find out other people paid 12 dollars for the same ride. Great.

Then not too long after we are driving we also find out that everyone is going to Vientienne, Laos... a city in the North of Laos and we are supposed to be heading to a Southern city called Savateket. AWESOME!!

The bus was packed to the roof with boxes of goods that are going to be delivered somewhere. We made several stops where locals were piling on and paying 1/8 of the price, I'm sure. We made stops that allowed these people waiting along the side of the road to continue to load our "luxury" bus with more goods. It got to the point where a big box, filled with "q tips" kept falling on mine and Dan's head. The aisles were piled with bags of rice or grain or whatever that stuff was. Bike wheels. Stools and chairs. People started to resort to sleeping in the aisles, on some of the stuff, cause it may have been more comfortable than the small chairs we were crammed into.

The driver kept insisting that the bus was going to the Northern city and we had excepted our fate that we paid twice as much as most to have the "luxurious" ride of a lifetime (for 22 hours!). all to end up on the wrong side of the country of Laos! YIKES. Next thing we know a Vietnamese man is yelling to us about something, when we pulled over in this "one horse town". "BLA BLA BLA, bla bla bla.... Savateket, bla bla bla".... all with great urgency.

Me thinking some of these things and saying most of them- "WHAT? you want us to get off the bus here? why? what? ok!! Just a second. I have to get my stuff.... our stuff is buried under all this shit that you guys piled on the bus and now you need me to immediately get off this bus to go the Savateket??? is there a bus coming for us? where do we wait? do we have to pay again? when is the bus coming? what's going on?? yeah yeah yeah, I am hurrying! Thanks for the friggin notice!! It's kinda hard to walk over all these bags of RICE!!! bouncing my big bag off of all these chairs and probably peoples heads. AHHHHHHHHHHH!! I hate this place! Did I get all my stuff from my seat?? Did anyone check? Where do we go? when is the bus coming??? is there a bus coming? where are we?"

We stand on the side of the road, having been traveling for a total of like 36 hours, coming straight from Halong Bay the day before and getting directly onto this "luxury" bus for the past 22 hours. It's hot. We're confused. Oh! Here's the bus we're supposed to take.... jam packed with people!!! Bags go under, we get on and sit on the only stools left down the middle of the aisle, cause the seats were all full. And, pay some more money! Cause these tickets we are showing them that we paid for have nothing to do with this driver here in Laos. OF COURSE! So, there we sat in the aisle of a bus on little plastic stools, bouncing our shoulders between the seats, longing for our previously scoffed at and hated "Luxury Bus".

In any case, we made it to the city we wanted to be at and had an awesome time there. We rented bikes and went around the place and chilled there in this small, totally relaxed city (that is Laos 2nd largest city.... but it looks like a little town). Ate well. Played games. It was fun. And now we laugh at the hellish ride that at first made us laugh and then later all wanted to rage, cry, plead, pout or whatever.... anyways, now it's just a good memory.