Waiting for transport
I woke up at around 9am today, sort of early because we were catching the bus to Thakhek, much further south. After we’d had our breakfast, we all chilled in the room for a while, until the woman came to clean our beds. When she came, that meant we had to check out of the hostel. We did so, but we still stayed in the social zone of the hostel. There wasn’t much we could do whilst we waited for the bus to Thakhek.
Mat and I decided to play pool for a while, neither of us were going to win the world championship any time soon. After we’d had our fill, we decided to go out for some lunch before we were stuck on the bus to Thakhek for many hours. Bearing the time in mind, we didn’t linger once we’d had lunch, and we returned to the hostel. Shortly after, the tuk tuk arrived which took us to the bus station. Once we’d arrived, everyone transferred from the tuk tuk, to the actual bus to Thakhek. The bus itself was more of a minivan to be honest. It was rather hot again, and we only had one break during the journey. I usually take the chance to have pineapple if I see any, it’s always so fresh.
Room for two
After a few hours of driving, this bus terminated in the capital city of Vientiane. We didn’t know this beforehand, so were a bit confused. After about an hour of waiting, we boarded the sleeper bus to Thakhek, the real one this time. Different from the others, this sleeper bus had 2 rows of booths, which fit two people in. It’s great if you’re a couple, but a roll of the dice if you’re single. Mat holed up with Mischa, whilst I was hoping to not get stuck with a large, hairy Russian dude. The odds were kind, and I instead got paired with a middle-aged Chinese lady, nice and small, so plenty of room in the booth.
Despite her not knowing much English, we got on quite well. We added each other on WeChat, and were able to translate whilst we messaged. Julie and I spoke for quite some time about both of our travels, which was quite interesting. Life has a funny way of getting you to meet new people! After a while though, it was dark and we decided to get some kip (sleep, not Lao kip!).
For my first experience on a sleeper bus, check this out!
