As I mentioned earlier, T and I decided to buy our bus tickets to Si Phan Don from the sweet-faced man at the travel agency next to the internet cafe, mostly because he had such a nice face, but also because he was $5 cheaper than his competitors. The kind-faced man promised us beds next to each other on the sleeper bus, a good dinner on the bus, and pickup and coffee in Pakse before the trip to Si Phan Don. It all sounded good to us.

The kind-faced man LIED. Yes, we were in beds next to each other, but the beds were actually a single bed, on the top bunk. Never in my life have I been so grateful to be married to a man as wide as a bean sprout. I thank God (and the other passengers should too) that I was traveling alone, or else I would have been crammed into a bed with some tiny unspecting Lao person, who would have been CRUSHED when we turned our first corner. The “good dinner” was another of the Lao twinkies you get on buses, and a juicebox of soy milk. Mmm, delish.

I had thought this experience would be fun….I had never been on a sleeper bus like this before, and since I can usually sleep anywhere, I figured it would be okay. HA. Hahahahaha. I was sleeping next to the window, where I nearly died of frostbite, and I spent much of the night with the bean sprout’s bony knee in my back. Every time I was about to fall asleep, the lights would come on and we would pull into a new bus station. I finally fell asleep just as we arrived in Pakse at 6am.

When we arrived in Pakse, we looked around for the minibus that was supposed to be meeting us. No minibus. T eventually called the number on the ticket, and was told we would be picked up shortly. After an hour, the bus finally arrived, just before I exploded in a fiery rage. Then, our bags were thrown atop the bus and we were carted off into town, where we sat INSIDE THE BUS, outside the office for about half an hour, roasting in the sun, as we waited for the drivers to sort ourselves out. There was no coffee. There was not even water. The only thing the kind-faced man was got right was his tutuk driver being on time, and even that was wrong–he was early!

That’s the last time I buy tickets from someone based on them looking nice. Next time I’m going to buy from the meanest-looking SOB I can find.