VIP Bus Luang Prabang, Laos to Kunming, China

Sasha:

Our VIP bus in the Luang Prabang bus station.

For those days when you just want to get out of Laos, Luang Prabang's travel agencies are happy to provide you with a $50USD ticket from Luang Prabang to Kunming, China. For a premium, they will also sort out your China Visas by sending your passports to Vientienne. Our agency arranged for a tuk-tuk to pick us up 6am from our guesthouse.  We convinced him to stop at a sandwich and smoothie stand so we could pick up a quick breakfast, before he dropped us off at the bus station for a 7am departure.

VIP bus?  This basically translates to the bus being a sleeper bus.  The standard Kunming-Luang Prabang bus has three double-decker rows of beds separated by two aisles.  The beds are wide enough that my elbows only lightly brushed the wall and metal guard, and my hips fit just fine, though without much room to spare.  At 5'6", I could lay down fully extended, but my toes pushed up against the "box" that contained my feet.  It was much more comfortable to either curl my knees, or be sitting up.  Ra, at 6'1" was not so fortunate, and less comfortable. They give you a pillow and a comforter, but no sheets.  The bus is AC, and you can independently open your windows, which is quite handy when one of your neighbor starts smoking.  If  you are in the middle row, too bad.  You don't get a window or a wall to lean against.

Inside the VIP bus.  Happy not to have a middle seat.

Something about the bus reminded me of a hospital.

Our bus was fairly empty, so we were able to negotiate a set of beds on the lower level that connected feet to head so we could talk without one of us in a middle row bed.  I had a knee injury and was EXTREMELY happy that we didn't have upper berths, where we would be climbing up and down. Most people on the bus agreed with us, and the lower level was in much higher demand as people got on and off the bus.

We were told to expect a 25 hour ride, while one of our fellow passengers was told to expect to be on the bus for 30+ hours.  All told, the trip took 22 hours, with several long stops for food. The bus tended to stop every 2-3 hours so our driver could have a cigarette.  I was grateful that for the most part, the driver stepped off the bus to smoke, or at least only smoked when the door was open.  Not all passengers were so accommodating.  Our lunch stop was at a bus station, where the easy food options were donuts, barbequed meat, and fruit stands.  Dinner was in a Chinese border town that had lots of soups and various dishes served in metal bowls.  Because I don't eat meat or wheat, I stuck to yogurt and fruit. Ra had a sandwich from that morning.

Our most exciting moment was when the driver stopped short because of an epic rock that had fallen into the road. The driver and the strong men pilled out of the bus to see if their combined force could move the boulder.  They lifted, they pried with a stick, and finally with their combined might they were able to move the rock perhaps a half a foot closer to the side of the road.  At that point, they looked at the rock, brushed their hands off, and called it a day.  The driver got back in, and drove around it.

Crossing the border was simple and straightforward.  Boten, the border town on the Lao side was filled with new construction buildings that looked empty.  They were so tall and clean- think new Las Vegas hotel without the neon lights- completely out of place in China, and completely empty.  The were clearly a new chinese building project.  At the Laos side of the border, we stepped off of the bus, filled out our departure cards, got everything stamped, and got back on the bus.  We reached the Chinese border patrol parking lot, grabbed our bags, and hauled them inside a building inspired by a new-construction airport.  we went through he expansive lower floor, complete with automatic passport scanners that printed and filled out our arrival/departure cards for us, which a Chinese official was good enough to direct us to and scan our passports with. .  The immigration station looked exactly like the modern airport variety.  We lined up with everybody else, only they took about 30 seconds each, while the border guard took about 5 minutes to process each of us- flipping through the passport multiple times, eying the photo to make sure we matched, and even tried scratching off the photo to make sure it was an original. At this point, I can watch what he's doing because standing with my backpack is putting so much pressure on my knee, and I need to find a way to relieve it. Finally I was through and able to join Ra at the baggage scanner.  They ex rayed the bag, and we were done.

Crossing the border from Laos into China

The Chinese Border Administrative building.

We stopped just outside of the border in a bizzare town- like they built the road and realize a city should be there, so they built a shiny new town.  Only, they are still waiting for the people to arrive.  It was like a backwards ghost town.  New, instead of old, but still haunted and eerie for the lack of people. Ra trudged up and down the street looking for an ATM, unsuccessfully.  As it turns out, he only needed to walk another two blocks further, but only discovered that as the bus cruised by the ATM on the way out of town.  One more hour down the road, we stopped at a proper town with people. Everywhere we went people would stare and smile at Ra.  However, finding vegetarian soup was close to impossible. Instead, we munched on cherry yogurt through a straw, and rambutan fruit. Back at the bus, we brushed our teeth in the parking lot before settling into our beds (seats) to catch a few hours of sleep.

I popped a valium at 9pm, and woke up at 6am to a bus that had already pulled into the south bus station in Kunming.  We, along with a Londoner named Mick, were hustled into a minivan to take us into town which cost 60 yuan (would have cost no more than 20 if we had taken a metered taxi).  We checked in the Hump Hostel and prepared for our first full day in China.