Waking up very early, I was off to get some food for the long bus ride and then to the station. Wasting no time, I made it to the 7am bus going to Vientiane. Taking my seat and putting my bag in storage under the bus which always makes me uneasy when I can't see it,  but I only do it on government buses. Everything was normal until the bus started. Every time the gears shifted the screeching came from underneath. Really thought nothing of it since all the buses have there own little things wrong, but within an hour were broken down on the side of the road after one final screech. We all instinctively just started talking away, anyone who had any english just forms a group, quite amusing. I snapped a few photo's of the vain attempts to fix the bus along with another fellow. The realization however was that we were going to be here for a while waiting for a new bus, and you can bet the driver of that bus is in no hurry.

       Chatting away with two girls from Ireland the time flew by... I just love the accents people from Ireland have that speak full english! about an hour went by when an elderly lao woman who walked by long before came with a giant basket full of things to sell us. Now since the bus is more than 80% locals, they were the first targets. What a change that was. Curiosity made me go over and check out the goods. Bags of peanuts for 1000kip, fruit for the same. A whole papaya the size of a watermelon for 4000kip. I decided to grab that and split it with another guy checking out the same thing. It was amazing to see the real raw cost of these things, out in the mountains broken down near a village. This woman sold every single thing she brought, and maybe walked away with 20-30000kip ( $3-$4 ). The 1000kip notes are often used as decorations there so worthless, but out there they held real value, and this old entrepreneur, every kip counted. It was a nice site.

      After about 2 hours total, a bus finally came and locals swarmed to get on and grab a good seat. It was crazy with people jumping on with bus in motion, driver not batting an eye. I waited and grabbed my bag from under the other bus and made sure it was on, then got on and grabbed a seat in the back. The vain attempt to make up time didn't work, and we of coarse still had to stop half way for restrooms etc. It was here that I saw a really cool 3 inch long praying mantis, big as hell, crawling along while someone took a picture. He then decided to crawl onto my camera strap and get all too close, but it was cool anyhow.

      The views are great as always, but after 10 hours anything starts to get boring. A series of looking out the window, chatting with Irish friends, looking at my watch.... Repeating dozens of times over we finally arrived, a mere 12 hours on a 8 hour bus. Could have been worse. I hear sometimes the bus doesn't come :-P Spent a little bit finding a room which isn't easy arriving late, but found one quite quickly to my surprise. It was off to a long awaited dinner and some internet. Video's are going up!