never a dull moment

From Luang Prabang we took a night bus down to Vientiane. Leaving the bus station was a frightening experience, as when we were about to go three very large and aggressive and scary men came on. They were in a big argument about money or something, and really shocked all of the quiet, peaceful (and very small! Laotians on the bus – and me who was sitting the back, near them!) A guard (carrying gun) came onboard to try to get them off the bus but he just had to power over them. At one point one got off the bus and the other followed him, tearing down the isle of the bus and pushing everyone really forcefully out of the way. He even knocked this old, frail, tiny Laotian woman almost to the floor! When they got outside they started beating the crap out of each other, as all of us on the bus watched in horror. I thought we should have just pulled away then, but one of them was still left on the bus. After a while the two got back on and the bus pulled away. For the next hour they were still arguing loudly about money and the one guy kept saying, from what we could make out, “if I die on this trip you’ll never get your money”. I can only wonder about what the three of them were doing there. Hmmm… when we arrived at 5 am the next morning they were met by several guards. I don’t know what happened to them after that.
That was probably the worst night bus experience of my life. For about the first 6 hours, the bus turned the sharp corners of the mountains round and round, throwing everyone from side to side constantly until the wee hours of the morning. Tom had taken 2 sleeping pills that I had bought in Bkk and he was absolutely out for the next 18 hours. Remind me not to take 2 of those.