In which I pay $25 for the Chicken Bus!!!

Oh, this is a good one. It's mostly my fault for being a sucker and paying way too much for bus service that, in practice, doesn't really exist, but I'm still ticked at myself. I think I was just so excited to find that I could take a bus from Hoi An, rather than having to return to Hue and spend the night, that I didn't question how expensive it was. I was the only person on the bus going to Laos; the rest were travelling north to Hanoi. The bus driver was absolutely no help in trying to explain to me what was going on; I had to rely on the good graces of a fellow Vietnamese passenger.

When we got to Dong Ha, I got personally handed off to the owner of the cafe where everyone ate dinner; he was going to take me to the hotel where the bus would pick me up the next morning. The hotel was totally crappy with rock-hard beds, an insufficient hot water heater, and a very loud cooling system. I had stayed in $2.50 hotels that were better, and this one charged $10. Wonder if my driver was getting a kick-back for bringing me there?

At 5:45 the next morning, I got on the minibus for the thankfully uneventful drive to the border. Once there, I had a breakfast of vegetarian Pho (noodle soup). I think I identified a piece of liver in my neighbor's bowl, and really didn't want to think about the identity of the rest. Then we waited, and waited, and finally caught up with the 4 Swedish girls we had been waiting for at the border.

You get on a new bus once in Laos. For some reason, given the price of my ticket, I assumed this would be a nice tourist bus. Whatever could I have been thinking? Oh no, we were on the chicken bus to end all chicken buses, and at least we had seats, as opposed to all the poor buggers sitting on the sacks in the aisle. There were boxes under all the seats, in the cargo areas. and covering the entire top of the bus. People with businesses basically use the public bus as a means of transporting goods; no matter that they're inconveniencing everyone else.

The bus honestly would not have been quite as bad had not all the people around me been constantly smoking cigarettes, throwing all their trash out the window, and spilling beer all over me. And it was really, really hot. My entire left arm is sunburned from sticking it and my face out the window trying to avoid the cigarette smoke. Oh, and let's not forget the food vendors who hold their wares up to the bus windows at "rest" stops. I would swear that one of them was selling cockroaches on a stick. The rest were just holding up unidentifiable meat and stretched out chicken wings. The biggest joke of all was being constantly passed by nicer, more comfortable tourist buses. And all I could think was : why aren't I on one of those?

Price to the locals: $3. Price to me (from Vietnam): $25.

At least I am now clean and fed (and had my first BeerLao of the trip). I'm sharing a room with two of the Swedish girls, since we all needed a place to stay, and I lent them $85 to pay for their Laos visas!! The banks were closed when we arrived, so we'll have to go tomorrow morning. I may be heading to Pakse tomorrow, as there is not much to do here in Savannakhet. I think most of the people here are very nice. I've just had my fill of "local" transit for a while.