The bus didn't look all that bad, and we set out right on time at 8:00 am. The bus wasn't very full, and we settled in to our seats not exactly hopeful for a comfortable journey, but at least not dreading it as much as we would have been on a minibus.
Our optimism was short-lived, however. Just about an hour outside of Luang Prabang, as we started up the twisting and winding mountain road, the bus came to a stop. Heavy rains the night before had caused mudslides that washed out part of the road, and a construction crew was trying to dig it back out. The driver shut off the air-conditioning, and we all quickly exited the bus instead of baking inside. This took a few hours. Finally, very delayed, we were back on the road.
I can't deny that the scenery was incredible, though.
Another hour later, we once again came to a stop, but this time, fortunately, for only half an hour. It seems that a part of the engine had fallen out, and the drivers had to stick it back in with a piece of bamboo. I guess that worked, because we were able to continue on our journey, winding incredibly slowly across the hairpin turns and winding mud roads of the mountains.
We were supposed to arrive in Vientiane at 4pm, but there was never any hope of that. We hadn't even passed the mountains by 4. We finally stopped at the lunch stop around 5pm, where we were served a quick bowl of hot noodles.
We arrived in Vientiane around 10pm, every one of us onboard exhausted and grumpy. We were back at the good old (cheap) Orange Backpacker's Guesthouse at 11pm. The next day was spent in Vientiane; our last full day in Laos.
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