It all started on Wednesday night.
We were anxiously awaiting for the arrival of our friend, Gabe Kim. We had no way of knowing the bad luck she would bring. The signs were all there; Within 30 minutes of her arrival, we discovered the bus driver gave her the wrong bag, Becky was suffering from dehydration, and I had a bad case of sun poisoning. But that was only the beginning.
Without any sleep, we headed towards the Laos border. We purchased tickets for Vientiane, only to discover around 8 p.m. that we were lied to. Our tickets only got us to Udon Thani and there were no more buses until morning, leaving us stranded in the middle of nowhere. Exhausted and hungry, we found our way to the nearest restaurant, Fuzzy Ken’s. We ordered 3 bowls of beef stew, which took 15 minutes to microwave EACH - there was only 1. As for the “cheeseburger”, there was no burger, no cheese, and stale bread. I’ve had sliced ham thicker than this burger. Old Ken couldn’t even remember 3 bowls of stew- the easiest order ever. He came back to ask us what we ordered at least 5 times.
After walking home through a parade of cockroaches, we got ready to wake up at 4 a.m. to catch the first bus to the border. The 4 o’clock bus arrived at... wait for it....7:30. Once we got to the border, we went to the VISA office to find out that Canadian VISAs take hours to process (thanks Gabe). Once across the border, it would take a few more hours to reach our water tubing destination in Vang Vieng. To top it off, it would be raining for the next several days, making tubing impossible anyway. We decided to cut our loses and head back to Bangkok. It couldn’t get much worst. Right?
After he refused to pay the inflated price her tuk tuk driver was demanding, he threatened to call the police. Thankfully, our driver came to the rescue and revealed the true price. Eager to get back to Bangkok, we discovered the only bus had holes in the seats, screeching chairs, and falling cushions. It also came with an evil bus witch. Every time we tried to sleep, she came back and yelled at us. Apparently sleeping, unless completely upright, is not permitted. At the first stop, we tried to transfer to a luxury bus. After unloading our bags and sprinting to catch the bus, we came realize we had been deceived: it was no better. We made our way back on the our original bus.
We were stuck on a bus for 48 hours going nowhere with bad food that Becky wouldn’t even eat, her toe possibly broken, and to top it off, and alcohol free Thailand for the next two days thanks to Buddha’s Day... NOW how will we erase the memory of these horrors???
We'll see what happens next. Stay tuned...
Elissa Rae
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