Our journey from Vientiane to Luang Prabang started at 7:20 am yesterday. A fifteen-minutes ride on the tuk tuk brought us to the Vientiane Northern Bus Station. The bus was supposed to leave at 8:30, but we left a little before 8:00. Kenric said the journey should take “between ten and fourteen hours”. Ninety minutes laters, I understood why it’s “between ten and fourteen hours”. The bus stopped for more than 1.5 hours waiting for something ahead to clear. No one knows if it was an accident or just a vehicle that had broken down.

The road (Route 13) is paved, but it’s not painted with a divider line. It’s wide enough for two buses, full of sharp curves and nauseatingly winding in many parts. The ticket price of 170,000 Kip (USD $20.53) per person included a noodle soup lunch which I’m glad I was able to keep down. The lady a few rows back was not so lucky. Every time she retched, I felt like vomiting too, and she must have done that a hundred times. I wish I had some sort of medicine I could give her. By the time we finally arrived in Luang Prabang, coincidentally at 7:20 pm, she was utterly miserable.

The amount of trash we saw along the way, especially plastic, was depressing. The view was unexpectedly beautiful. The best part of the journey was the ability to get a glimpse of the Lao people’s daily lives. Houses are built just steps from the road, and on overhanging cliffs.

I’m posting a lot of photos today because they’re candid and interesting even though many of them have dirt and water spots from the bus window. I hope they can give you a glimpse into life in rural Laos.