Suka-Suka Camilla.As I Like it.

The story of a travelling watergun: the day it took a bus ride from hell

I always remember Guillaume's story about a local bus he took in Lao some years ago. Together with some chickens and smelly fish sauce dripping on his shoulder. Euwgh.


So when I was stuck in a 10-hour bus ride from hell to Thakek in Central Lao, I thought to myself I rather have fish sauce dripping on my shoulder than going through the experience.You see, Pakse to Thakek are supposed to be 6 hours away on a civilized bus.So we spent 4 unnecessary hours in our lives on the road.


The faithful day started with us dripping wet in broad daylight from a Pi Mai new year's party in Pakse. It was held in a friend's family house. We arrived at the bus station late (and wet) because everyone at the party was too drunk to take us to the station while the sober one took the car for a drive in the city, with our luggages in it! So we had to wait until the car came back.


The bus was about to leave when we got to the station. We chose to buy a ticket on a local bus because it's half the price of a VIP bus and it leaves in the afternoon, while VIP bus leaves at night. BIG MISTAKE. The local bus carried more people that it should because it's Pi Mai period. The Laotians were travelling back to their home town. We stopped in 3 different bus stations to pick up more passengers in a bus which already had 50 people over its maximum capacity. The air con couldn't keep the heat away, children crying, old people caughing, drunk man sleeping on top of rice sacks (yep there were rice sacks on the alley and a half naked drunk old man) and Lao karaoke songs blaring from the speakers.

The doomed bus

The bus stopped 2 hours into the trip.Everyone got off the bus. We saw a technician working on the machine while other crew started moving our luggages on top of the bus. Half an hour later there was no sign of us moving on with the journey. I was taking pictures of some piglets by the roadside, squeezed inside a small rattan cage, when a pick up truck full of more piglets zoomed in and parked next to the bus. The next thing we knew, our jaws dropped and we were watching in HORROR as piglets after piglets were loaded inside the luggage room of our bus. What the heck is going on?

Half an hour later, we're still in the middle of nowhere and the idea of travelling with pigs for another 6 hours just sanked in. The crew finished loading the pigs, the truck drove away, we were getting ready to go back into the bus WHEN the same pick up truck came back FULL of GOATS.WHATTTT?

Goat stinks.Just ask the lady...

Here's what Sarah's think of her mobile farm experience.

We resumed the journey half an hour later with a bus chocked full of passengers covering their noses. And then there was a fat sweaty man came onboard in the middle of the road and took over half of my seat for 3 hours.


Lesson learned: plan your trip in Lao around VIP bus or sleeping bus schedule. Pay the damn fare to avoid the nightmare.