night terrors

Day 74. July 26th

The terror rose within my stomach and into my chest. I could feel my heart pounding as if it were going to beat it's way right out of my rib cage. I could hardly breathe.
The bus fishtailed from side to side, slid backward and then came to a halt just meters away from the edge of a cliff. "OhmyGod, OhmyGod, OhmyGod" I repeated with fright. "I have to get off this bus!" I pulled open the tiny window by my seat and quickly contemplated the best way to lodge myself out. Feet first or head first? The thought of landing on my head brought me to the conclusion that feet first would be much more practical... and then Chris grabbed hold of me, "Everything is okay, don't worry. The bus is stopped."
"I have to get off" I said, then grabbed my bag and got up to follow the other passengers out into the dark night.

The bus had lost control as it was turning up another sharp curve in the road. A mudslide had coated the road with thick layers of liquid brown sludge. It was slippery.

As soon as everyone had evacuated, all the men took instinctual position behind the bus and proceeded to put all their might into pushing it out of the mud. The sight was somewhat inappropriately hilarious as their feet just slid out from under them. Some found themselves sliding down the road as if it were ice and they were skiing down the hill. 'This could lead to a new kind of extreme sport,' I thought. I couldn't help but laugh as Chris' ridiculously flimsy flip flops suctioned themselves into the mud and remained there as he tried to walk forward. He tripped over his immobile feet and almost landed on his face. The straps popped out of the sandals (for what seems like the hundredth time on this trip) and his feet slid over the mud as he rapidly tried to gain his balance. His movement resembled an awkward combination of the moonwalk and someone at the gym running stationary on a treadmill. "Stop laughing at me!" He scolded.



Side Note:

Yes I'm bitter toward Chris' fake Havaiana flip flops that he bought in Thailand. They have been the cause of him stumbling up mountains and hurting himself frequently while walking. He complains often of all the cuts and bruises he collects as a result from wearing them. He can never keep up to me either and so I try to stay behind him while trekking so he doesn't get mad at me for gaining distance ahead of him. "Stop running!" he yells after me, as if to convince himself that he is actually walking quite fast, which makes my pace appear abnormally quick. He should get a pair of good sandals like my Chacos. They have lots of straps to keep your feet in place and they have a thick sole with deep grooves on the bottom for good traction. He doesn't listen to me though, even if I do know what's best for him ;)


We had left Luang Prabang at around 2pm on the Express bus from the local bus station. Our destination: Vang Vieng. The bus trip was supposed to take about 5 or 6 hours total.

The journey started out well, with lovely scenery to gawk at along the way and lots of little roadside villages. What I find amazing about Laos is all the untouched forested mountains that seem to go on forever and disappear into the horizon. I had heard that this stretch of highway was beautiful, though very windy. I just didn't realize the full extent of what that meant until we were on the bus being jerked from side to side as the bus seemed to be in a continuous zigzag motion, propelling itself up and down steep mountain faces, navigating a series of switchbacks with VERY sharp corners. The unsteadiness is enough to give a person motion sickness. It was a little unnerving at times given that we were driving on a narrow highway that lined the edges of cliffs and huge drop-offs. I couldn't help but imagine the bus driving off the edge at any moment.

Roughly 3 hours into our trip the bus came to stop behind a lineup of other vehicles. We quickly discovered by looking across the valley that there had been a huge landslide. We had passed several smaller ones so far without much issue, but this one had caused quite the traffic jam. A backhoe was slowly clearing the road, tossing the fallen earth off the nearby cliff.

We sat on the bus waiting in anticipation for about 6 hours. The sky darkened as the sun set and we watched the full moon rise above the mountains.

Finally at around 11pm our bus made a move. We pulled out from in between some transport trucks and proceeded up the highway. We reached the site of the landslide and quickly discovered what had taken so long. There were about three landslides in a row and the dirt had mixed with rain and blanketed the road with thick mud. The bus got stuck and I wondered if we were ever going to make it to Vang Vieng. Thankfully there were crowds of people outside ready to help push our bus up the hill. Everyone cheered when we made it out, though the whole process had taken over an hour.

No sooner had we driven a mile or two when the incident occurred. Another landslide. Only this time there weren't any people waiting outside to help us. After many failed attempts at getting the bus out of the mud, we were back on the windy road at around 3am.

We finally arrived in Vang Vieng at 5:30am. My jaw was sore from grinding my teeth the entire way. I hadn't peed all day/night, and we'd only eaten one meal before we caught the bus earlier that day. My stomach felt like it was eating itself.


I'm just thankful that we made it out alive.


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Travel tip of the day:

Expect the unexpected and be prepared.

Yeah the bus trip was only supposed to have been about 6 hours, but I really wish that we had brought some snacks for the ride. And maybe a blanket since it got really cold that night.