Trip to Vang Vieng
Oops. Next time, I will not write anything about "another adventure."
We caught the VIP bus from Vientiane to Vang Vieng. "VIP" is the nicest class of bus in Laos. VIP buses have air-conditioning (kinda) and only fill the available seats (no squeezing on extra people). Our bus did not fill us with confidence. Every attempt at shifting by the driver produced a loud grinding sound(picture 1). During our lunch stop, the driver and his assistant (all the buses we have been on in Asia and SE Asia have a driver and a second person who takes tickets and keeps the driver company) spent the twenty minute break working on the bus (picture 2). 
An hour or so further down the road, the clutch went out. The driver pulled up next to a house, tried to fix the bus again, and eventually told us that another bus would come for us in an hour or so. 
About half of the people on the bus caught rides while the rest of us waited in the heat (picture 3). It was hot but we did get an opportunity to meet some of our fellow travellers. Damen and Marie gave us good advice on buying our next camera. We also got to meet two people from Portland, Amy and Sloan. It was lovely to talk to someone from home, or really close to home. They left in January for a similar trip. It sounds like they will make their year, while we will be coming home early. However, we can't come home until after India (Joey made me go to China, he has to go to India). Sloan did help alleviate some of Joey's anxiety about India. All in all, a decent pit stop.
But we did decide to take a mini-bus (read, minivan that carries ten passengers) on the next leg of our journey to Luang Prabang.
posted by Joey and Erin @ 10:34 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Hey Erin & Joey,
have been following your adventures from the start. You guys are awesome!
You were sort of lucky with the bus, too. On my first trip to Nepal, as we were making our way into the Himālaya on a similarly rickety bus (with good view of several ex‐busses in the valley far below...), it broke down as well. I think it was the transmission that snapped. We were forced to spend the night in a makeshift road workers’ camp, got terribly sick, and it was another two days or so before we could finally set off on our trek. It turned out wonderfully, though. Four weeks solid of hiking around the Annapūrṇā massif.
As for India, don’t fear, you’ll love it. It can be intense at times, but not so much in the serious‐problem sense (like being pickpocketed) if you are careful, it’s the crowds and poverty that can get you down.
But it definitely depends on where and how you choose to spend your time. If you can stay with local people you know, definitely go for it (anything not to be a tourist for a while). And as soon as you get a little off the beaten track and out of the urban centers, it can be really tranquil. My all‐time favorite (apart from hiking in the Himālaya) was the Sanchi/Udayagiri area – so peaceful and full of wonderful monuments. If you visit Vārāṇasī (intense but recommended), try to go on a day trip to Sarnath from there (when the site museum is open).
Loads of fun wherever you are!
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