Day 81: Transit to Phonsavan

We rocked up to the bus station at 7:30 a.m. already dreading our 8 hour journey. We know it’s going to be a long bus ride through mountains. We are over long bus rides through mountains. It’s just a recipe for TBS and car sickness. What do you do when all you can do is look straight ahead? It makes it difficult to talk to each other. It makes it difficult to catch up on your research for the next place to which you are going. It makes it difficult to distract yourself from your TBS. The long and short of it is that it’s really boring and kind of horrible.

However, this route is our only option. There is just one bus per day that goes to Phonsavan. We show up and ask where the bus is. Now, we have specifically purchased tickets for a bus and not a minivan. We’ve read the minivan packs way too many people into it (and we know from experience, you end up sitting with your luggage squished in all areas around your sitting area). Needless to say, we expressed serious 1^st world discontent when they pointed us towards the minibus.

This couldn’t possibly be the bus we are supposed to take? We bought tickets for a bus, not a hybrid between mini-van and bus! Oh no This was our bus. We fortunately got our two seats in front. As we sat waiting for the bus to depart, we unhappily watched them:

• Load not just one, but two scooters onto the top of the bus
• Load bags of limes onto the bus (I’ll take citrus over shallots any day) and shove them on the floor under people’s seats
• Take every row of seats that could seat 4 people and seat 5 people in them
• Pull out a plastic chair next to us and seat one person on it so he was
• Depart and travel with the door open the whole time!
• Have the person who loads the luggage sitting on a 4x6 piece of cushion in the door

Maybe we should have taken that minivan.

Thank God for catching up on podcasts, keeping our eyes closed for hours, the road not being so bad, and knowledge that Vietnam has trains.