Local Motion

Feb. 5, VANG VIENG

Despite prominent mention in the Lonely Planet, neither E nor I noticed the section on local bus travel that mentioned the Lao people are notoriously prone to motion sickness.

Our "VIP" bus (read: has AC and sometimes a toilet) was half-full of Westerners when it departed the Luang Prabang bus station. By the time we'd been driving for an hour, the bus operator had filled the rest of the seats with locals who'd been waiting at various intervals by the side of the road.

The next warning was the small plastic bags distributed by the bus operator - only to Lao passengers. I wondered why until we hit our first hairpin turn. Barf city. And the man directly in front of us was the worst of the lot. He puked every 10 minutes for 4 hours without fail. When he ran out of material, the noises got worse. "Brrrrr-GAK-GAK-rrr-HOCK!" It was truly incredible. People were staring but he paid them no attention.

After all of the curves and hills and bumps, when the roads flattened out, his stop magically appeared, and he hopped off the bus looking no worse for the wear.

To add a bit of insult to injury, the town we arrived in is a shameless spring break type of town and I can't wait to leave tomorrow. I'm off to float down the river with the rest of the revelers and not enjoy myself at all. ;)

MN