Scariest bus ride yet!
Trip Start
Jul 08, 2009
1
19
26
Trip End
Aug 31, 2009
Where I stayed
Zeula's Guesthouse
Luang Namtha, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Before we even left Luang Prabang at 9am it was pouring rain, I mean serious rain drops. They were coming down fast and furious without a breath in between. All windows in the mini bus were closed so it made our nine hour journey very stuffy. We started off leaving the bus terminal and heading north to Luang Nam Tha. I had two seats to myself until travel sat next to me. My window didn’t have a handle to close it, so I manually closed it as best as I could. The rain was still coming in through holes where the old handle bar use to be. So I moved to the seat in front where there was a young local girl. She must have been around 18 -20 years old. She had bleached strands of her hair and painted her nails with a French manicure green and yellow (it looked more like a big mess if you ask me though). She moved over from sitting in between both seats but would not move her bag onto the floor. So, me, this girl, and her two bags shared this rainy journey.
When I was sitting against the window I could not see the front of the bus. I think this was my first mistake. Since I moved and sat in the aisle seat I had full view of what the driver saw. It was rain, rain and more rain but without working windshield wipers. He had nothing. The rain came down for a good three hours, heavy and did not get any lighter. The real kicker was we were driving on a one lane road with two way traffic. Motorbikes, cars, SUV’s, trucks, and contraction vehicles passed us in both directions. This road wasn’t straight. We went around the mountains which included to many bends to count where you could not see if there were oncoming traffic. It was the scariest ride I’ve taken in a long time.
After arriving in Luang Nam Tha I took a tuk-tuk into town and left all my stuff in Zeula’s guesthouse and went to Green Discovery and Eco-Tourism shop to see about going on a two day hike. Unfortunately, no one booked anything for the next day or the day following that. This actually turned out to be a blessing because the following day it rained from 8am when I woke up until 3pm. I tried renting a bike. I went out for about 45 minutes to visit some minority villages, but turned around when the road was way to rock and I was getting soaking wet.
At night I ate some good local cuisine in the market. I have no idea what it was, but it was green like spinach but softer and I dipped sticky rice into it. In Laos, you eat everything with sticky rice. After that I went for a walk and met a really nice local who was creating scarves on her loom. They were so beautiful. She invited me into her house to see what she was making. They another lady who lived down the road showed me hers too. She was creating a sling to hold her child. Hers had a lot more detail and was also beautiful.
Comments
Rainy Busy Ride
What a nightmare this bus ride seemed. You must have been scared but these are the memories that add to your adventure. You are like a modern day female Indian Jones. I don't know if I could get on a bus and just start out roaming foreign villages. Thanks for sharing.