This bus ride from Luang Prabang went over several mountain passes and some over 4,800 feet. It took just the 7 of us, passengers, in this big bus about 7 hours and 40 minutes to get to Phonsavanh. I figured that we had done over 3,220 curves in our journey. The route was marked by large portions of the gravel road where the dust from the trucks passed us and in front of us through up huge dust clouds. The travel company had advertised this as an A/C Express bus and the only air conditioning came from keeping the front door open all of the ways.
The waiting area
Treats for the bus
Loading the bus
Lao coffee for the ride
Pai from Chiang Mai with just 793 curves was a lightweight compared to this journey. Everything was just so dry and dusty and there was smoke everywhere from the swidden agriculture they practice here.
We stopped twice, once for lunch about noon and then for a bush stop three hours later—men to the left of the bus and women to the right.
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In passing these many roadside villages I was struck by how basic their lives were in these villages. I saw where they were gathering the type of branches used to make the popular brooms found throughout SE Asia. I imagined how a broom broker would also visit these villages and pay for these brooms which would show up in cities throughout SE Asia.
Many times I would see very young women with their babies strapped to their backs spreading out these broom fronds, gathering water, washing clothes, bathing at the communal watering area, or just gathering with each other and visiting as our bus passed by. I would see the men, building structures from a variety of materials from bamboo, wood, and concrete.
The rice fields were dry and the cows were feeding off the remains and carelessly wandering along the road.
The bus never stopped turning in the 7 plus hours it ran. Construction on the road was continuous with patches made with hot tar and gravel to fill in the holes and gravel graded in other places.
We saw where the Chinese had drilled through this mountain for the high-speed train that would go from China through Laos. China has also many dam projects to produce electricity. This is one of many countries I have been to where China is investing it big infrastructure projects to benefit them with some benefit to the countries they are working in.
China Power
I saw huge swathes of forest that had burned and other areas that were now burning. During my time in Laos, it smelled like I was always near a campfire. One tour guide told me that they are “working” on reducing this problem. It looks like it will be a long time.
A tout offered me Michael, the UK guy, and the only other tourist, a ride into s town some 11 km for just 10,000 kips in his A/C minivan. What a deal.
I ended up at the Nice Hotel for 80,000 kips per night—the going rate here—for two nights.
After checking in I asked about tours to the Plain of Jars and the fellow that drove us from the bus station offered 650,000 for the full tour at all three sites. No way.
I asked a fellow at the hotel and he suggested that I should rent a motorbike for 100,000 kips instead. I went to the Sourath Travel Agency and they said the same thing—not enough tourists because of the coronavirus. While I thought about this, he and his friends offered me some “rocket fuel” to seal the deal. I was on for taking a motor scooter out to the three Plain of Jars sites.
The tour company said that business was down by 60% because of the Coronavirus and there were no group tours.
I have recently uploaded all of my travel videos to YouTube now that they allow longer uploads and you may want to see my travel adventures there. That link is
https://www.youtube.com/c/huntforgold.
If you do go there, please subscribe to my video channel since it will help me eventually get some income there and help with my future travels. Fewer people are using DVDs so I am transitioning to streaming my travels on my YouTube channel.
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