Jodi News
And back I go...
| Two days later and I'm back in Vientiane. First a 7hr bus trip to Vang Vien and then 4 hours to Vientiane this morning. As per usual the bus rides were a less than pleasant experience. Which leads me to a quick overview of the overland transport system in Laos: Basically there are three tiers to long distance road travel- public, VIP and mini-bus. The public buses (a.k.a "chicken buses") are those taken by the general population and basically stop anywhere, to pick up anyone, carrying anything. These are the cheapest option, but also the slowest and most "basic". The next step up is the VIP bus. As explained this is a loosely applied acronym, but it is nonetheless an improvement on the public service. Mainly used by foreigners they inevitably attempt to entertain you by playing Karaoke DVDs. These are a decent option of travel, though also relatively slow and rather scary on the hairpin turns. Finally, you have the mini-bus. These will pick you up from your guesthouse and lay claim to being the fastest means of transport. This all depends on how you look at it. First of all they pick each person up from their guesthouse, which takes about 1 hour. Then they cram as many people in as possible (today that was eleven, plus the driver). Finally, they stop multiple times en route delaying you yet another 1 1/2hrs. So while being quicker on the road, all up it takes about the same time. As such your choices aren't exactly brilliant, particularly when you add in the potholes, dirt roads and winding mountain passes. For me it's been even more exhausting because I've been on the move so frequently and don't get any time to recuperate between journeys. My poor tail bone is paying the price... Today's trip was particularly interesting because one the couples we picked up was very displeased at the seating arrangements. The man, a Scotsman, was having a fit, huffing and puffing, saying there was no way he was getting in the bus. Since it was either that or walking to Vientiane however, ultimately he had no option but to get on board. He wasn't going to give up without a fight though, and decided he 'd try to rearrange the seating to suit his interests. As you can imagine though, noone else was really in the mood to swap seats to please an angry Scotsman- particularly when his pleasantries extended to "you switch seats" accompanied by perfunctory pointing. The rest of us were casting side-long glances at each other, and I whispered to the guy next to me "aggressive!". The guy saw me say something and reeled on me shouting- "you shut your fucking mouth and stop fucking looking at me". I was absolutely stupefied that someone would say something like that and said "excuse me" (like what the f@#K") "you have no right to speak to any of us like that". He then shut up (I guess because he didn't actually expect me to reply), but I had to sit next to him for the rest of the trip which sucked in itself- but was made more unbearable by the fact he smelt something disgusting. Bastardo! He continued his antics during the trip calling another one of the girls a stupid bitch. I was really pissed off at him, more so because he was a total coward- only picking on the two lone female travelers. He knew we couldn't hit him so lay into us. When the guys refused to move he just accepted it. When he was trying to sleep I kept hoping we'd hit a massive pothole and he'd whack his head on the window as a kind of retribution. But no such luck! Anyhow despite his childish behaviour we arrived in Vientiane and after chatting for a bit four of the guys who were on the bus decided to come back to the guesthouse where I'm staying. We checked everyone in and then went for lunch by the Mekong- Indian. They're all pretty nice guys- an American, two Norwegians and a Brit. After lunch we spent the afternoon wandering around the town and looking at the market. I ended up splitting up from them early on however, because I needed to sort out a problem with my Visa card (which I managed to do thank god) and was expecting a phonecall. This morning I was back at the school and will be there tomorrow as well. I leave to Bangkok tomorrow night by overnight train, and am meeting James on Friday. We fly to Cambodia on Saturday which I'm really looking forward to. And that's it for now. No further tales for the time being... I'll write again in couple of days. |
Entries from Jan 18, 2005:
there are no entries yet.
Nov 30, 1999