A van drove us to the bus station where we loaded on a very cramped, uncomfortable bus. It was packed with too much luggage and a motorcycle! No, that is not a typo, there was an actual motorbike we had to hop over to get to our seats. I thought this was the VIP bus? We settled in what we thought were comfortable seats but as the bus drove along, Denise discovered her seat had a bounce to it. At every curve and bump and turn, her seat would shake and rattle. Not ideal for a 13 hour bus ride. Luckily, a nice girl sitting by herself switched with us and she sat in the non-rocking chair. Denise and I popped some Gravol in the hopes to doze off easily and sleep the whole way. No such luck. Stops along the way for bathroom breaks consisted of going on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, possible in the backyard of some unknowing farmers. We just stayed dehydrated the whole ride and prayed we wouldn't have to use a bathroom break. With the bus travelling along the mountain side on roads obviously not made for long distance travel, we bumped our heads multiple times on seats, windows and each other. Needless to say, this was the bus ride from hell. We got to Northern Laos at 8am where we were to take a boat into Thailand and get in a mini van to head another 5 hours to Chiang Mai. Luckily, after the 13 hour death ride everything went much smoother. The mini van is much more comfortable than the bumpy uncontrollable bus. I'm not sure if this was the better option of the 2 day boat ride, but it was too late now. One of our first stops in Chiang Mai may have to be a Thai massage to get out those kinks!
This is the scooter we had to crawl over to get in and out of the "VIP" bus.
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