We had used ODC for our trips around Hanoi, Vietnam and were relatively pleased with the services they provided. We thought we could trust them, so we booked their overnight bus to Vientiane, Laos. When they sold us the ticket, they told us the bus would be a brand new, air-conditioned bus and had never made the trip before. They showed us pictures of nice tourist buses and told us our bus would be like that. More than one of their staff also told us the bus would only stop for half an hour at the border, so we would not have time to get our visa when we crossed. For this reason, we needed to order the visa through them for a $14 per person surcharge.
The day of our bus departure they informed us that it would not be a new bus but would be a very good, air-conditioned bus. They told us it’s a bus company they regularly use and that the same bus goes all the way to Vientiane. When we were delivered to the bus station, we were shown to a very old bus with filthy vinyl seats. The windows were caked with dirt as if it had not been cleaned in years.
The top of the bus was loaded down with cargo boxes covering the entire surface area. They also had filled most of the underneath compartments with cargo. When we arrived, they tried to put our bags on the top of the cargo boxes on top of the bus, but we requested they be put underneath. They shoved our packs into one of the nearly full compartments. Two men had to stand nearly horizontal, using all their strength to force them into the small space.
We were some of the first people to board the bus at 6:00 PM, however, as we walked down the aisle of the bus, we could not find seats together because stuff was placed in all the seats (presumably to save them). They had removed a number of rows of seats at the back of the bus, making space for more cargo packed from floor to ceiling. When we got to the back of the bus, we turned around to go back and look again in case we had missed some seats. A woman associated with the bus company came up behind us and started yelling at us in Vietnamese. She blocked our path, physically shoving and pushing us back toward the back of the bus. We tried to excuse ourselves and go past her but she used physical force to ensure that we could not. Scared, we just sat down in the nearest two seats and moved the items that were placed in them. She continued to yell at us but we just stayed seated. Later, the representative who had brought us to the bus from ODC came and yelled at us “You back of bus – Not front. Back only.” We had not tried to move seats.
The bus filled up and 15 other foreigners had still not gotten seats at all. At about 7:00 PM, the bus started to try to leave without the other passengers even though their bags were already tied to the top of the bus. They stood in it’s way and banged on the windows until it stopped. Noone associated with the bus company could speak any English and none of the foreigners could speak Vietnamese but heated negotiations took place outside the bus. The police became involved. Finally, the mean woman who had pushed us around got on the bus and told Vietnamese passengers they would have to sit on the floor with the cargo in the back of the bus. They had not yet paid their fare for the ride. They filled up the back of the bus and the aisle. Some tied hammocks in the aisle which hung above other passengers. The picture below was taken before the other hammocks were tied up.
The bus finally pulled out at 8:30 PM and promptly turned off the air-con that had been running. People noticed the change in temperature right away and asked for the air conditioning and asked with gestures and words but were given no response. A few minutes down the road it stopped to pick up more passengers. It continued to stop every few minutes for gas and more passengers. Around 10:30 it made a half hour dinner stop at a disgusting food stall. Crawling/climbing out of the bus was quite a challenge due to the stools, boxes, bags, and hammocks blocking the aisle.
Throughout the night, we had to choose between the suffocating heat that resulted from being packed in like sardines or opening the windows and getting rained on. Most people chose to get wet in order to get a little fresh air. Around 4:00 in the morning, one of the passengers bribed the driver with money to turn the air conditioning on, however, he only let it run for an hour.
The bus had to go very slow because of its weight. In the early morning, one of the back left tires blew out and we had to pull over to the side of the road for maintenance. The passengers all piled out of the bus to watch as they replaced the tire with a hole on the side of it that was the size of a person’s head. Little did we know that the worst was yet to come.
We arrived at the border at 7:00 AM and spent 2.5 hours going through the immigration procedures. Rather than driving us from the Vietnamese side over to Laos, the bus crew required that all foreigners walk in the rain. Most people were getting their visa’s there, and we could have easily paid $30 to get ours there as well instead of the $44 we paid to ODC to get it in advance. Before we left, the driver took a long look at one of the front tires and looked concerned. His crew took off the hub cap and tried to do some sort of maintenance before we got back on the road. They also seemed to notice a front right tire.
We crept painfully slow along the winding roads through the mountains. Around noon, a front tire blew, this time causing the bus to shake and rattle as the driver struggled to maintain control. We ducked for cover as the bus leaned to the left but the driver was able to bring it to the side of the road. This time the entire tred ripped away from the inside of the tire.
All of the passengers climbed out into the rain. A Korean man yelled at one of the bus crew that he wanted his money back but the crew was indifferent. They clearly had no concern for the safety and well-being of their passengers. They had loaded the tired old bus down so heavily that even they knew that it was unlikely to be able to make the journey. Realizing that we had no more spare tires, the crew seemed to give up and took shelter from the rain under a food stall by the road.
After standing around for a while, we found out that the Vietnamese passengers were trying to organize their own ride from a local person who had a car. Clearly this bus was not going anywhere soon and even if it could get back on the road, it’s an accident waiting to happen.
We asked for our bags and the driver shook his head “no” but after some demanding, he let us get them out from underneath. We decided we would still try to find a way to get to Vientiane. Along with some other foreigners, we hitched a ride in the back of a truck for $5 each which took us to a crossroads. Sadly, many of the foreigners could not even use this option because their bags were still strapped to the top of the bus.
At the crossroads, we waited until a bus came by that was able to take us to Vientiane for another $5 each. The bus only had room for us to sit in the aisle, but we were just glad to be out of the rain and off of the death-trap bus.
Worn out and exhausted, we arrived in Vientiane after dark, glad to be alive and well.








