this day we woke up at 4.45am. hahaha... coz we're going to take a tuk tuk to the bus station tat is a a few km south of Luang Prabang city center. in fact tat day when we book our bus tickets, we were given 2 different timings of the bus. 1 was leaving at 6.30am and the other was leaving at 8am. we chose the earlier one coz we had to go and knock on the doors of the guesthouses in Vientiane for accomodation again... =P
anyway, once we loaded our stuffs onto the bus, the bus set off the winding mountainous road... almost all the passengers slept on the bus once the bus set off. i think besides the 5 of us, there were another 2 German ladies and 1 american lady ---- we were the only foreigners amongst the Laotians. and the bus took about 40 passengers i think... however, i was not able to sleep... hahaha...perhaps due to the constant twisting and turning... but rest assured, i don't suffer from car sickness... =D
and taking these bus really give an over dosage of Lao music or is it Thai music... hahaha...coz throughout the entire bus ride the bus driver juz keep playing the music again and again...until the music is really drumed into ur brains... hahaha.....
anyway luckily i did not sleep so i was able to admire the wonderful scenery that greeted us along our way to Vientiane. especially in the early morning, when the sun was juz rising.... because we were in the highlands, and it was cold in the morning, one is able to see a sea of clouds when we're on top of a mountains... and its juz like u're travelling in the sky but not really the sky... and its juz really amazing and beautiful to me! =D
then after travelling 2 1/2hrs on the road, the bus stop... hahahaha... and when it stopped we were surprise when we see most of the passengers getting off.. we thought we're got a toilet break... but the surprising thing was the bus stopped juz along the road and there is not a toilet in sight... as all over is juz grass and mountains... u can say in the wilderness... hahaha... but then when we got down the bus (but there were some pple who din get down), we saw some men, unzipping their pants facing the bushes and u hear the 'shhh' or 'whoosh' sound... hahaha... then it struck us!!! Yes! this is a toilet break... and everywhere is the toilet!!! hahaha.... and we saw some women heading further into the bushes to do their 'small business'. hahhaa... keiko, toshiko & me were curious so we followed those women (the germans also went) coz there got more bushes for u to hide and more polite to do ur business without pple looking upon u... hahaha... so i tot i'll also give it a go. i went and do my 'small business' 1st. keiko seeing it and don't think its wise to control as we don't kno when will be the next stop, also did her 'small business'. hahaha... yeah...we're the more adventurous ones... =D but at least now we can drink water... hahaha... =P
then everyone board the bus again... and after about 45min, the bus stop again... this time is stopping for us to get food. and we're in one of the villages in the mountains. and everywhere are the Lao people... not a single foreigner in sight (besides us on the bus lah).
we juz got down to stretch our legs and also buy some interesting food... hahaha... yeah u can say tat we're pretty greedy...
anyway we're not tat hungry.. (coz we're very smart, we bought sandwiches in Luang Prabang yesterday. and these sandwiches will be our breakfast. and the sandwiches are super big... so u can eat it in 2 parts. =P) but juz curious to try the interesting food there.
after tat we continue our journey again... by then, the bus was stopping everyone and then and more and more pple juz get onto the bus... until all the seats were filled up.
and the pple had to take out plastic stools and placed them along the aliase to sit down... and becoz the luggage area was filled with luggage, the pple placed their luggage (huge plastic bags u kno... those sort u see at pasar malam) in the aliase... so when u get off the bus, u got to climb over all these things.. hahaha..
interesting.. but also fustrating.. coz we were thinking 'shit! if this continue like this, we'll reach Vientiane late in the night!" and the Germans were getting worried and angry as time pass on...and finally they stop for lunch... and this was the 2nd toilet break... hahaha..sort of... and we ordered 2 bowls of noodles and share... we juz want to try... not really hungry. we only stop for 30min. after lunch it was back onto the bus... and as we travel along, i saw lots of villages along the way. and in all these villages, houses are perched pricariously on the mountain.
and u can see kids, carrying some sort of grass, and my guess is, these are to be used to make brooms, the roofs etc... but not sure...and u'll also see women carrying babies on their back and at the same time working in the fields, mountains etc. the pple are really really very poor... and 3 times i saw young people wearing their Hmong ethnic clothings playing some sort of a game. 1 row of ladies and 1 row of men facing each other and passing a ball between them.... to me it seemed like those sort of match-making games. hahaha... but i'm not sure... coz how come they are dressed in their finest standing under the hot sun playing a game? i was not able to take pictures of them in action...coz the bus drove by too fast...
by 12.30pm, we've already travelled for 6hrs, and the Germans got off. coz we've reached Vieng Ven, that's where the both of them were heading...
and in between, the bus will stop to let pple get on and off the bus... hmmm... it set me wondering... this is an Express Bus and u see these sort of thing... hahaha... but i guess tat's y the duration from Luang Prabang to Vientiane is 10hrs.
yeah... we finally reached Vientiane at 3.30pm... so we've travelled 9hrs on the bus...when we reached, we took a tuk tuk to the city center and each one paid 10000 kipp ( i think) so tat's pretty cheap.
we took the tuk tuk with the American lady and she told us where she stayed and where exactly are the guesthouses located... hahaha.. we could not make any pre-booking 1st because the guesthouses do not have email address...and if they do have, their prices are exorbitant.
anyway, we carried out bags and started walking and knocking on the doors again.. hahahaha... yeah we knocked on about 6 guesthouses before finally choosing the one tat the American lady stayed in. Coz she told us tat the rooms were not clean... coz most of the guesthouses were fully booked. hmm...so no choice lor... we juz took it... and we paid USD $2 for 1 night. hahaha... its very cheap.. but then the rooms were like prison cell lor... (pity i did not take a pic of the room).
toshiko, nobuko & harumi stayed in a room, but keiko & me stayed in the dormitory. in fact we shared the room with another lady... and she's from Denmark. we talked to her that night and we learnt that she has been travelling for 3mths and she've got another 3mths to travel around SEA before heading home! wah... i was envious of her.. hahaha... =D
because we'll be heading to Bangkok after Vientiane, we had to book our tain tickets. So we equire our guesthouse about the train tickets as we'll like to head down to Bangkok on 25th Dec.but shocks of all shocks there were only 3 train tickets on 25th dec. in fact i was very worried now... the gals were also worried... then i told them looks like we've got to change our plans... and asked if there are tics on 26th, but there weren't also. then asked for tics on 24th! Finally there are still tickets on 24th. in fact there were 10 tickets left! and all are upper deck in the 2nd class carriage! when we heard this, immediately we took it.... we didn't even think anymore... coz we're relieved to have tickets to get down to bangkok... else we'll be stranded in vientiane... and i din want to stay there longer than required.. coz we've got to get back to KL by 30th.
hahaha...once we've paid our train tickets, then we walked around looking for food and also shopping...
we headed down to Talat Sao... coz this is the largest market (shopping area) in Vientiane... tat's wat the guidebook said. but when we reach there, we saw tat the building was quite and all the shops were closed...hmmm... how come? then i think shit! today is sunday... perhaps the pple are westernise and they also rest on sun...and that also explains why the streets were so quite... u dun really see many vehicles on the streets... hahaha... anyway we were very disappointed and we sort of like complain tat Vientiane is so so boring as compared to Luang Prabang... hahaha.. in fact is true lor...anyway... we ate our dinner
and head back to our guesthouse to call for the day... coz tomorrow we got so many things to do... as we'll be heading down to bangkok in the evening...to technically we've only got 1/2 day to tour the city and shopping...
and yeah.. before we head back to guesthouse i had to send a mail to the service apartment tat we've book in bangkok, to tell them that we want to stay there for 2 nights... and i was really very scared tat they do not have rooms... and if tat's going to turn out true... i really dun kno wat to do... hahaha... we'll have to sleep on the streets then... but i juz din want to think... and told the gals to pray hard tat the serive apartment has vacancy.
anyway juz call it for the day and i'll check my mail tomorrow for the news... hahaha... hopefully its positive! =D
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