Nightmare on the road to Laos

I can't even begin to describe the nightmarish experience of the 30 hour bus ride. Things did not begin well. I was told there'd be a pick up and a man showed up and asked if I was going to Luang Prabang and then signaled that I should follow. No other indication. Whenever I tried to ask if it was the right company or who he worked for he would get angry and gesture wildly to keep walking. At one point, after walking through Hanoi with my backpack, picking up people along the way, I stood in front of his motorbike (that's right, he was NOT walking) to get a clear answer and he smacked my hand and scratched me. By now I was seething. I was about to sit on a bus for 30 hours and I was sweating my butt off walking around....not exactly what I'd call a pick up. Nobody seemed to know what was going on but no one seemed worried, I guess it comes from travelling alone, but you have to be cautious. Something seemed off. After 30 minutes of walking we finally arrived at our stop and we stood in the heat waiting for a minibus. When one arrived we crammed in, bags and all and continued for a few more stops. We had so many people that they were standing in the stairwell of the van/minibus. And the pickup guy was not getting any nicer. He was pushing people from behind to get them to move faster into the bus, which was full. We drove for awhile and then backed in to a driveway and got off. We stood on the side of the road until someone came and got us and walked us a short distance to the bus station. We handed over our passports and waited around with confused looks on our faces. The van split in two (those going to Luang Prabang and those going to Vientienne). The guy who seemed to be leading us began to walk away but I did not have my passport back. I said something and he went back to the counter where they just happened to be waiting. Finally we were on our way down a 2 storey ramp and towards our bus. A few people left their bags beside the bus and a few shoved them under the bus and on they went. I waited to see what was happening as I did not have a good feeling. There was A LOT of cargo. The guy standing on the roof started signalling for us to send our backpacks up....not likely. I flat out refused and everyone followed with me, though not loudly. Do people not care about these things? Finally they loaded some cargo on the roof and our bags were piled into an underneath compartment, though I was a bit worried. We got on and drove around picking up even more cargo for a good 3 hours. We finally stopped for dinner at around 10:30 that night. We got back on and throughout the night I woke up to them loading cargo. At one point I saw them moving backpacks and I watched but they were moving them onto the bus. Someone moved in beside me, we'd started with only half the bus being full. In the morning we had a full bus....full of people and cargo. The aisle was full. The seats, which sit about 2.5 feet in the air and have legs that stick straight out, are empty underneath with a lot of room for more storage. When we woke up there was stuff up to the seats, to get off we literally had to climb the aisle. People were evensleeping in empty areas under the seats and squeezing through a hole in the cargo (think x-files crawling). That morning we got to the Laos border at 8:30. Our first rest stop as well so the line for toilets was long. We handed over our passports to get stamped out of Vietnam and waited for them to call our name. I got mine back right away and began climbing the road to the Laos border. We filled out some Visa forms and handed over a picture. He kept a pile of the passports and when everyone was done he flipped the pile over and we began to pay. We then went to receive a stamp. Done. Thinking we'd be stopping for breakfast was a mistake. Our next stop was 1:30pm. By then we all needed a toilet again and we were starving. My first goal was to find an ATM, I did that and then enjoyed some fried rice. Back on the bus. We drove the next 6 hours speeding over windy turns. I started to feel carsick so I went to sleep. Last stop.......Luang Prabang at 9:30. We got off the bus in the pouring rain to tuk tuk drivers demanding exhorbant fees for a short jaunt, because they could. I arrived to my Guesthouse feeling so disappointed. I only hope it gets better.

No one who worked on the bus spoke English so we couldn't communicate with them. If we tried to get off when they were loading/unloading cargo we got yelled at and one girl got assaulted while she slept but we couldn't do anything because no one understood. I felt so helpless and vulnerable. It was not a nice feeling or experience. My advice: FLY!