Transport in Laos

I told you....soon more to read and here I am.

I told you before that Laos is lazy...well they really are. I want to share some travel experiences with you.
My trip from Tad Lo to Tha Kaek was more or less like this: Expecting departure time 9.30am, and arrival time 5pm. I left Tad Lo in a non aircon local bus on time, buses normally do during early morning hours. To get to Pakse it took me for 80 km, 2 hours driving which was still fine. They stop everywhere a long the road to let more people in. 12am we left from the southern busterminal in Pakse. Bus was almost empty, only some locals and 2 tourists, I'm one of them. To stop for people is fine with me, but to stop without knowing why we are stopping somewhere in the middle of nowhere, not really. They do this all the time. Sometimes to pick up rice...onions...a lot of onions (see pictures)...or just nothing and waiting. We arrived in Savannakhet around 6pm and still some more hours to go. In this town we stopped, everyone had to get out of the bus and we waited on the side of the street....the bus dissapeared behind a big gate and we were just waiting. After 30 min. the bus came back....filled with of course...more rice and onions ;-) We drove 5 min and there was the busstation of Savannakhet....we stayed here for 1 hour! Question....why couldn't they do this whole loading thing at the busstation??? Well after the busstation nothing changed...more stops...more onions...and finally around 10.30pm we arrived in Tha Kaek.

One more: Vientiene to Vang Vieng....3 hours :-)

We left around 10am, around 12am lunch....it started to rain, not much just a bit. After lunch the road was steeper...we drove really slow...we slipped...we stopped...we slipped again...we were slipping backwards...everyone out of the bus as soon as possible. We waited for a hour...we decided to walk to they next village...we hitchhiked whole the way to Vang Vieng and arrived there around 3pm! Enjoy the pictures :-)

Last one: Vang Viang to Luang Prabang, departure 2pm, 6-7 hours trip, minivan
Together with 9 other tourists in a minivan we left around 2.30pm....and nothing went slow everything went fast....faster...fastest. Which resulted in one time all most over the edge, one time almost a collision with a bus, one time almost a dog under the car, one time I literally flew trough the bus and bumped my head to the top of the bus, thousand times being shaked from left to right. And this all with an amazing view! We really asked the driver to drive slower, because we wanted to get save to Luang Prabang. We made it! We arrived at 9 pm, including 2 longer breaks...probably he had been trying to improve his recordtime ;-) 

This whole is Laos pure :-) and why I had to extend my visa, and why I like this country....

whatelse happened:
- I went with Tyler and Johnny to Vientiene
- Vientiane is such a sleepy city...the most quiet capital I will probably ever visit
- I got a valentine rose
- I went with Johnny to Vang Viang, where I met Mariia again...now together with Amelie
- Vang Vieng is like Kuta Beach in december
- 2 euro for 20 teabags, 2 euro for a cappuchino, 2 euro for a deodorant, 7.5 euro for sunscreen....
- hardly disabled people....we are still wondering why
- Luang Prabang, world heritage city number one? can I life here...a huge YES!
- I won't discribe Luang Prabang...this is something you have to experience yourself.

I will stay a couple more days in Luang Prabang and definitely do some shopping. Afterwards more to the north for less city but more nature.

I'm still looking for a motorbike to buy and do the rest of Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia on a motorbike....so if you know or hear something, please let me know!

Although I'm having a lot of fun and I'm really blessed to be here...I do miss you that's for sure..

love carry