Arriving at the bus station at about 8am for my 9am departure, I realize that there are no minivans here and I had most certainly overpayed by mistakingly thinking I was paying for a van seat. Oh well. I sat down next to my first public long distance bus ride in Laos. I didn't have to wait long to just laugh at the adventure. Sure enough the side of the bus is wide open and being worked on by 2 guys with sparks flying. Cutting some wires here, changing a battery there.... When the bus your supposed to be on in an hour is worked on until 5 minutes before when it finally starts, you're going to have a great ride. Somehow we actually departed on time with the bus shaking madly everytime the engine had to idle. Before long we were winding once again up the winding roads of the mountain. This time was different however, as due to the painfully slow speed the large bus has to go, there was no sickness and I was for the first time able to leisurely take in the entire rides scenery. To my surprise the paved roads gave out after about 3 hours, leaving nothing but rock covered dirt for the next 7 long hours to luang nam tha. Due to the frequent stops at bus stations in smaller towns to pick up passengers and giving me a chance to by some fruit and stretch, it actually wasn't so bad. The real fun started later when the last 3 hours of road where under construction and probably being paved for the first time ever, leaving only have of an already narrow road hanging on the edge of a mountain. I wanted to switch sides of the bus due to how close we got to the edge, but never did. Come nightfall, seeing the headlights turn on I really got a sense of adventure. Due to the roads, buses don't travel these mountainous roads of the north at night, and for good reason. Every corner is a blind turn and crashes happen often every during daylight, so night brings on a new challenge. A few camp fires in the center of villages we trucked on by, we pulled into luang nam tha. After a short ride into town, I followed a couple who looked like they knew were they were going to a very nice guesthouse. It was almost 8pm and after the ride I had no intent on finding one myself in the dark. The place doubles as a restuarant so I went to eat before bed. I was going to sit alone when I was gestured over by a nice guy from England to his table. We chatted away as I ordered and before long were joined by a girl from Italy aswell. It made for a very nice dinner, and nice way to settle in after the long ride.