7am weak up; as our bus to Luang Prabang comes to pick us up at 7h45. Well we taught so... 7h50 still no one coming... 8am no sign at all! We ask our hotel to contact the bus company. To do it ourselves would be a challenge as the general level of English in Laos is less than basic, nearly inexistent! After trying 5 different phone numbers, the hotel manager look at us pretty embarrassed, saying that the bus company do not have any pick up booked for us, and that they are waiting for us at the bus station (the bus leaving in 30 minutes). We are pretty pissed off, but decide to get a "tuck-tuck" to bring us there. There is no time to loose as the bus station is at around 20 minutes away. Finding a tuck- tuck at 8am was not so easy as the all town is still sleeping. After 5 minutes hanging around the street, we find this old man who do not speak a world of English! Trying to explain him that we need to go as fast as possible to the main bus station was quiet an experience! And of course at a reasonable price! You need to discuss the fare for everything! Finally, we are on our way... Well, again, we taught so...! After a good 20 minutes drive, we arrive to the bus station! Of course, it wasn't the right one!! Our tuck-tuck driver is so embarrassed and of course annoyed as his fare didn't include an extra course: the right station! Well he didn't had any choice as we were screaming at him: "stop thinking and just drive us there asap". We were looking at our watch thinking we will never make it! Nothing terrible, but we already booked our hotel in Luang Prabang; means we would loose our deposit. And what we taught would happened, happened! On our way to the station, we crossed our bus already on his way. Our driver tried to stop him by doing big gestures, but of course they didn't see anything. We finally made it to the right station 5 minutes after departure! Our tuck-tuck driver drove like mad all along, we nearly crash more than once! Anyway...! After discussion with the bus company we managed to get new tickets for the next departure 3 hours later! And what a bus... Of course the tourist bus was the one at early morning. This one was the local one, which includes: -karaoke for 8 hours!
-stop at every village for the driver to do the market!
-locals not use to the bus, vomiting everywhere!!
We laugh so much all along and finally made it around 9pm at the hotel! We decided to stay 5 night in Luang Prabang. The city is beautiful and the atmosphere very nice. Many activities are available, but twice the price as Chiang Mai in Thailand. We decided to have it easy and to wait for Chiang Mai for trekking. We just lived at the rhythm of Luang Prabang for 5 days, watching tuck-tuck drivers playing pétanque all day, visiting every temples twice, listening to the monks daily drumming, having fresh fruit juice at the local market with (when enough money!) a little slice of banana cake!