Road to Phonsaven

I don't know why it's so funny to watch people try to recline their seats on a bus, but to me, after only a few hours sleep, it is. After nearly getting in a completely different tuk-tuk for fear of missing the bus (and mistaking the driver for another...at some point it's true that all Asians look the same to Westerners, though I'm sure they say the same about us) I am now on the A/C 8 hour bus journey to the capital of Xiang Khuang Province. Bus travel in Asia is weird. You can buy your ticket in town (in this instance I got quoted between 80,000 – 120,000 kip) or just get it at the station for 75,000 kip. You put your bag in the under-bus storage compartment (or someone else rams it in there) then go off in search of snackage an a bathroom; there is an eight hour bus journey ahead of you after all.

Upon arriving back at the bus, you see all the bags being taken out of the hold and carried on to the bus (usually to prime seats for some unknown reason). Why you might ask? A valid question. In the case of this bus, its because a whole other kind of cargo is being loaded in there. Coal. Bags and bags of it that sometimes split open and the pieces diligently retrieved and shoved back in the rent cloth. Is this a needed product that one passenger is taking home with him? Could it be a gift for the in-laws? A bribe to an official or land owner? Or, more simply yet less interesting, does the 1 per day bus act as a cargo container too, carrying produce of different kinds to other towns? My mind reeled at the possibilities.

Also, you may not need your iPod. Many buses come kitted out, not with anything as practical as a toilet but with speakers and even TV screens – these are not for safety announcements dear friends, but for movies (anything from knock-off box office DVDs to local karaoke-style music videos) or, in the case of this particular bus, what I can only presume from the crackling in and out and almost blissful moments of silence, is the radio. At least the music itself, though often blaring (note to self: always pay attention to speaker placement when 'choosing' seat) is not too terrible. It does set the mood as the bus rolls slowly down this now sealed road past green hills, numerous trees and wood/wicker walled houses.

One more thing before I try to catch up on the sleep lost last night. Since Fiji, all countries I've been to have driven on the left. In Laos they drive on the right. I have this feeling that in Vietnam they drive on whichever side of the road they feel like, but I'm interested to find out how it is in Cambodia and Japan.