Riding Dirty...

Vientiane, Laos -

I had a day to walk around Vientiane (a few pictures to follow in another post) before heading down to the 4,000 Islands on an overnight bus (we'll get to that one in a second).

While Laos isn't a very wealthy country.  I had heard that there is, in fact, a lot of money here.

This was proven by this classy piece of machinery:

Given that all foreign cars are subject to a 100% import tax, this kind of car just seem overly obnoxious in such a poor country. 

But more obnoxious is the that the person put a tree air freshener in a Bentley.   C'mon!

Moving on to the overnight bus...

After the trip from LPB to Vientiane proved to be a total disaster: 

1. Because we didn't get the sleeper bus, only a sitting bus.  Not a good idea for a 12+ hour ride.  I  learned that lesson in Turkey, but figured one ride couldn't be THAT bad. 

2. Until of course the Lao man sitting next to me somehow swelled to 10 times his size and the bus broke down 2 times in the middle of the night. Adding about 4 hours to the journey. 

There were upsides though: 

1.  It afforded one of the best MacGvyer-esque moments I've ever witnessed when the workers on the bus refit the radiator hose with a piece of bamboo, so that we could continue our journey.  

2. Of the many buses that passed, we saw a few sleeper buses.  These ones have actual beds for the journey.   In them I noted that there didn't seem to be any single beds.  When I went to book the second bus to the islands, the didn't say that if you are a single, you'll have to share that bed with a total stranger.   

Clued in from the late night information, I asked what the deal was.  When the information was confirmed, I obviously booked the whole bed to myself.  And, while I'm sure it would've made for a funny story for all of you, it was the right decision. 

That's my spot in the back

It was barely enough room for me

The look of happiness for spending the extra $30 to sleep alone in my tiny compartment over the engine.