Travelling in Laos

Riding in the back of pickup trucks is a common way to travel in many parts of the world. Safety bars are added so you can stand. Doing this in Loas means you also become covered a thick layer in dust.

We got a ride from the National Park to a junction where the bus would come by in 4 hours. We read, Susanna worked on her embroidery, the boys did some screen time on our phones (but not their iPads so we didn’t call more attention to ourselves than necessary). We also played with some very cute puppies!

We were hungry while we waited, but didn’t know where to find food other than highly processed packaged food and a bit of fruit. It was interesting knowing that there must be a place to buy meals, but we couldn’t see it anywhere. Turns out, you can ask the convenience store owner, and there’s sticky rice and other hot food for purchase. But we had no idea.

The bus finally came by, and… it was full. Not even room for Martin, who was travelling with us. Then, it became clearer why the guy who drove us to town was waiting the four hours with us. He was our backup plan. We negotiated a price for him to drive us to the next city. The guys piled in the dusty back, Susanna got in the overheated front cab, and away we went.Read more