track our trek

since we covered vientiane in such short order, we decided to take an overnight bus north to luang prabang rather than lose a full day taking the VIP bus the next morning. (the VIP bus has a toilet and they serve food)...so we got our tickets and headed for the bus station around an hour early to catch our 7:30 bus...we watched guys lifting huge heavy packages to the top of the bus and securing them w/ tarps and rope. they did it w/ one guy on top of the bus, and two down below standing on the tires and pushing bundles up with their heads! we saw a bus pull out w/ a motorbike on top...we have no idea how they got that up there! there were no assigned seats, so after a while we joined a group of folks and boarded the dark bus to stake our claim...we were a bit worried when we noticed the plastic stools in the aisle...(is this bus gonna be that crowded??) but it turned out to be quite the opposite. it was empty enough for us to have two seats each on either side of the aisle. even in the dark, we could tell the bus was a bit worse for the wear, so we scouted out some seats that appeared to recline properly, and that had the least amount of nasty filling spilling from the tears in the seams...jokes! we met julie and ensophia from denmark & struck up a conversation with them before the bus got rolling. before long we realized it was going to be a long night...we were hurtling down winding and bumpy dirt roads with music blaring from the bus speakers, and a racket of squeaks from seats rocking back and forth the whole way! when we stopped for a toilet break after a couple hours, the lights came on & we could see just how shabby this bus was! the entire inside panel was missing from the wall next to my window seat, so all the scabby rotted out insulation was exposed; there was not a single intact armrest to be found! the writing was all in korean, so clearly this bus was purchased after a looooonnnng service life in korea first! at the toilet break, we wound our way down a dark narrow alley behind a market to a squat toilet in a corrugated tin shed...bring your own toilet paper...use the pail in the 50 gallon barrel of water to "flush."
back on the bus, we could make out enough in the darkness to know that we were driving through some really beautiful mountainous countryside. had we known we wouldn't sleep at all, we'd have opted for the day trip to at least take in the scenery! but we'd have probably been more terrified if we could actually see how fast we were moving around those breakneck curves! we made it to luang prabang over an hour ahead of schedule...well before 6am...i was still trying to convince myself i was sleeping when dp realized we were the only ones on the bus & the driver was unloading all the luggage! jokes... we split a songthaew with julie and ensofia & got dropped off in the "center" of town...dark and pretty deserted in spite of travel agents' promises that we'd be able to find a guest house at that hour...(the only people who were out were women selling food to feed the monks who make their daily rounds for alms at 6am.) we eventually rang the bell at a guest house and found rooms for $10/night after being quoted a price of $35/night by a couple of people who were clearly looking to take advantage of road-weary travelers. needless to say, we fell into bed for a few hours before we ventured out to explore luang prabang!