Playing Russian Roulette with the Laos Transportation

Traveling through Laos is like playing Russian Roulette: You never know what number you will land on, but chances are it is not what you expected. Over the past 2 weeks in Laos, Ariel and I have taken various modes of transportation including a bus, van, pick-up truck, and boat, and with each journey, comes a new comical experience.

On one relatively short trip from Muang Sing (close to the Chinese boarder) to the province capital Luang Nam Ta, I traveled in a minivan that seats 12. Of course in Laos, the number of obvious seats in no way reflects the number of people that may be joining you on your travels. When the van was at capacity and there were 12 of us snugly seated, it made one final stop at the local police station before heading towards our destination. At first I did not think anything was strange until I saw a guard handcuff 2 people to each other and have them board the van. My guess is that they were caught crossing the boarder from China, only 10 km away. Of course there were no empty seats left so they sat with their backs to the driver, facing the rest of us, while the guard shared a seat with another Lao man. These 2 Lao girls who could not have been more than 15 were sitting within spitting distance from them and could not stop giggling or hiding their faces the entire trip. When we arrived in Nam Ta, the van first stopped at the immigration office to let the officer and these 2 men off before heading towards the bus station.

Taking a boat ride along the Mekong River, or one of its many tributaries, is a must in Laos, or so everyone says. The scenery is stunning, the people you will see along the way are extremely friendly and the river itself is a sight to see. While that all may be true, what these people don't tell you is that the seats are small, hard and nearly impossible to sit comfortably in. I of course learned this the hard way when I took a 6 hour boat ride from Nong Khiaw to Luang Prabang. After Ariel already paid the handsome fee for this scenic ride, I saw the chairs that we would spend the next 6 hours on and the only thought running through my head was "did they take these from a kindergarten classroom?" These miniature wooden chairs were wedged along both sides of a narrow boat. While I am happy to admit that by the end of this day I learned which position was most comfortable for me, it took a lot of trial and error. At one point about midway through the journey the boat pulled up to one side of the river and we understood that we were to disembark. Some thought it was a lunch break, others were just happy to stretch their legs, but when the boat then took off without us, we were all a little dazed. There was one local Lao woman with us and she started to walk, so we blindly followed her. After about 15 minutes we saw our boat again, a few hundred meters down the river. Later I understood that since it is the end of the dry season now, the river was too shallow at that part for the boat, our bags and us. To top it all off, about 10 minutes before we arrived it started to rain heavily and we all got soaked. Not to worry, my bag and I arrived in one piece, and just slightly damp.

So the games continue as I travel to Southern Laos. I think the next mode of transportation may be a sleeper bus, with more adventures I'm sure.