Chickens travel first class

Chicken in first class

I booked a minibus to get to Luang Namtha. Alternatively, I could have taken a tuk-tuk to the bus station and a local bus for less than half the price, but with my large backpack it’s just less hassle if I get picked up by a minibus at my guesthouse so it’s a price I’m willing to pay. Besides, the guesthouse receptionist who sold me the minibus ticket assured me that it’s much more comfortable in the air-conditioned minibus compared to the overcrowded local bus with the locals and their luggage and chickens.

The 8:30 AM minibus on which just two of us, a Japanese tourist and I were booked, was cancelled. They said it “was broken”. Which might have been true, or it wasn’t economical to drive only two passengers. Anyway, the 10:30 AM minibus on which I was later seated was full, they sold it out so all seats were taken.

A little out of town after our departure the minibus driver stopped to pick up a local girl. I’m guessing she was his relative or neighbor or friend and he was taking her along as a favor and she probably didn’t pay for a ticket. She was wearing a super short mini dress that was also cut quite low over her bosom. If Mr. Lonely Planet was her father, he would send her to her room to change into something more decent. According to the guidebook, women in Laos don’t dress so revealingly. But this seems to apply only to tourists. Local girls in need of a ride on a minibus are exempt from such dress code. The girl's luggage was a box. She squeezed into the minibus (what was it the receptionist said about overcrowded local buses?) and since the luggage compartment was full, the box was pushed under the seat.

Some time later during the drive, a French girl who was sitting next to the local girl jumped up and started screaming in French. At first I thought she might have seen a spider or a gecko or something but then I picked up she was saying “poulet”. Well, what do you know?

There were live chickens in the box!

The French girl was startled because one of the chickens pecked her leg. So we were riding in an air-conditioned minibus with locals and their chickens (what was it the receptionist said about locals and their chickens?).

These chickens got to travel in an air-conditioned environment and they are probably still telling their chicken friends how lucky they were to be upgraded. And as for us, tourists? For the premium price we paid so that we wouldn’t have to travel in a crowded bus with locals and their chickens we received the special bonus of this very same experience in the comfort of an air-conditioned minibus.