Laos – The Sleeper Bus

We’re in Chiang Mai at the moment but since it is colder than it is in The Netherlands and the rain is pouring down, I thought I should share our story of the Laotian Sleeper Bus.

Laos doesn’t have any highways (or at least I didn’t come across any) so getting from point A to B can take you quite a while. One of the options is to hop on a sleeper bus and travel at night so you won’t lose too much time. We went on the sleeper bus twice and it was quite the experience…

Wow, those beds look spacious!
When we arrived at the bus we peaked through the windows of the vehicle to catch a glimpse of our accommodation for the next 12 hours. The bus had two rows with bunk beds, and we were quite surprised because those beds looked quite spacious! But then I remembered I read somewhere that those beds have to be shared with another person. And all of the sudden a 1m70 by 1m bed doesn’t seem so spacious anymore…

Well, hello there stranger!
Since we were traveling with the three of us in Laos this meant that one of us had to share the bed with a complete stranger. I sacrificed myself and kept hoping and hoping and hoping I would not end up next to a big, fat, coughing guy. God (or Buddha) heard my prayers and put me next to a small Asian woman. Hallelujah! I had quite a good night rest before we arrived in Huayxay, the town we went on the Gibbon Experience.

Hold your bladders!
There are two occasions I wish I was a guy: at Kings/Queensday in the Netherlands and on a sleeping bus. If a man had to pee he could simply tell the driver to pull over, get out, do his thing, and get back on. Mindy was brave enough to go out there one or two times as well, squatting at the road in the middle of nowhere in the pouring rain together with a bunch of locals. Respect!

The way back
The journey back was quite a different experience. One of my friends had to sleep alone, but this turned out not to be so bad after all because the lucky bastard ended up next to a hot goodlooking fella from the UK. When we thought the bus was full and almost ready to leave, more people got on. We were wondering what they were doing there since the bus was completely packed, but they just sat down in the aisle! We felt bad for them because they had to spend 12 hours sitting in the aisle. At times it all became a bit too cozy when one of them put the arms or legs on our bed near our private parts. Gotta love those Asian sleeping buses!

Even though getting on these sleeping buses was quite the experience, I must say that they are pretty comfortable as long as you’re lying next to someone you know or someone who doesn’t look like a big Buddha 😉 Tomorrow we’re off to Pai and we hope the sun will show itself again. Brrrr!