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So after following these guys to the bus, we were shoved on, oh after being told to get our shoes off before climbing on and given a smelly bag to put them in. I suppose it kept the floor clean. We climbed on and 2 guys took our rucksacks from us. They started shoving them under the front seats and we were told to go towards the back. I wanted to keep my rucksack near me and asked but they didn't get what I meant and kept pointing for us to move down. Graeme assured our bags would be fine, and that if worse came to worse we had our valuables on us. What would I do without my precious clothes and no change of underwear! Suddenly the bus set off early, we were so rushed that we didn't get chance to even check we were on the right bus, gosh we thought we might end up in China or somewhere random. It was scary.
As we set off Graeme tried to relax me by playing some games and going through the plan. But all I could think about was where am I going to pee? There was no loo on the bus and we were told that there might only be 2 loo stops! Me and my bladder would never cope! I decided to starve myself of water for as long as possible. After a while we decided to get into our sleeping bag liners and have a rest to see if we could sleep. We were given a blanket and pillow (which both absolutely stunk, I wonder how many people had used these!) and the beds were just about big enough for a Vietnamese person. There were only a few people on the bus so I decided to move to a separate area at the back with 5 beds to sprawl out onto and actually zonked straight out - anything to forget where I was.
After a while I was woken to hear people getting on the bus. It ended up being a whole party of Vietnamese people charging on. I quickly moved back next to Graeme as I didn't want to end up next to a stranger. So many people piled on there was no space for everyone so some had to stand and later sleep on the floor! I was trying to sleep but it was one thing after the next, one guy perched on the end of my bed sitting on my leg, another chap kept talking on his phone down my ear lobe and flirting with the girl near him, a woman behind kept making noises like she was throwing up and I'm sure someone had brought on that smelly Durian fruit it smelt bad. No one even spoke any English. I tried to communicate with one woman about when there'd be a loo stop but she just laughed. We seemed to get so many stares from people too, I thought they were plotting to kill us! There was also loads of water coming through the roof above our section and down the middle. Graeme wiped it up a bit and it was yellow on the tissue! Eww don't know what that was but I'm sure that was part of the horrid smell on the bus!
Well, for some strange reason after people started nodding off so did I! The amount of insomnia I've had in my life and I get on an awful bus ride and I zonk out! Every time the bus stopped though I woke (hoping it was a loo trip). And actually it was good as it seemed the bus stopped quite regularly for the loo - but if we were lucky it was a hole in the floor with dirt over the walls and bugs crawling everywhere, if we were unlucky…….. I don't want to talk about it. I actually had to pee in the bushes one time in front of the coach.
The bus also kept stopping to pick stuff up - massive sacks which either contained drugs or body parts, probably of other Westerners who travelled. Big boxes were piled on and stuff was put on the roof - probably bombs. I'm surprised the ceiling didn't cave in, oh no wait a minute, worse, this made the dirty water from above start pouring again through the ceiling! These things were later dropped at someones house - probably the guy from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre's place.
I was eventually woken by Graeme at the border - at first I thought something terrible was happening but as I came too he told me we had to get our passports stamped at the border. We dived off and headed to an office. And waited for ages for the soldier men to arrive first (but then they disappeared to do some sort of army signal with the lieutenant - convenient when hundreds of people wanted to enter the country!). When they finally came back, loads of Vietnamese pushed infront, we couldn't say anything cuz they wouldn't understand. We'd waited about an hour, then realised we'd left our bags on the coach and the coach was…. Well could be anywhere!
We continued to wait for our passports to be stamped and thought we'd trust the coach people stupidly. Eventually we got them stamped. A driver off the bus was actually quite helpful and kept guiding us where to go next. He told us to continue up the road, just as we saw our bus drive off! Oops! We continued walking (nothing else we could do) and a while later came to a second set of offices - the entry to Laos. We got our visas sorted (writing them on a side board with a giant bug on it) and headed out into Laos with no bags…
Luckily our coach was there it was also coming through the border. We hopped back on it and luckily all our stuff was still there. The bus continued its journey to Vientaine, and I zonked back to sleep again for most the journey.
We were woken a few hours later to see everyone getting off. The guy at the front waved us to get off. We kept asking 'are we at Vientaine?' He had no idea what we were saying as he continued to push us off. We waited till our rucksacks were chucked off. We made it! And we were earlier than we thought thank goodness. What a terrible experience. Actually it wasn't too bad, for the money we paid it was ok, better than I thought plus lots of loo stops. I'd recommend it as a cheap way to travel, just at the time I was petrified!
- comments
Mum Sounds like the journey was a wonderful experience!!!! The comparisons between the journey's taken by you both are absolutely wonderful.
mum The sunset photos are stunning. I adore sunsets. Love graemes pink umbrella!! What a journey that was and well survived. Thank you God for taking care of you both in a scary situation and thank you Graeme for being a rock for Rachel. Rach you always did sleep well when no one else could. I recall good sleeps before exams and driving test wwhen most people would be wakeful you managed to sleep!! Love you Mum xx
Mrs B (Amy) Oh my gosh, the ride sounds a nightmare, hopefully the body parts bit wasn't true! Sounds like a real Indiana Jones Adventure!! Will have a nose at the photos now!! xx p.s I think i would've wet myself!