Trip to Luang Prabang

Monday February 28: I took the morning bus to Luang Prabang, in order to get a good seat I got up at around 6:45. I hadn't been up this early in Laos since the first few days I arrived in Vientiane. Madame Xuyen got up with me and helped me carry my bag out to the front of the house. It was quiet and still dark outside as we stood waiting for the tuk tuj driver to pick me up.

The driver picked me up and drove me to the northern bus station which is about 20 minutes away from Xuyen's house. I bought the VIP bus ticket and waited to board. I was near the front of the bus which was nice. The trip was a very long ride. Until Vang Vieng, the road is bumpy and slow but after Vang Vieng the road takes you up into the mountains. As you sit on the bus and watch the road twist and curve endlessly, and as the bus slowly creeps up the steep incline, you wonder if the bus will make it or if it will slowly start rolling backwards. We stopped a couple of times to let people on and off the bus, for bathroom breaks and once for lunch. I left Vientiane around 8 am, when the sun had just risen and I arrived in Luang Prabang at around 7 pm just as the sun had finished setting.