Sleeping bus. King of bus.

Bunk beds in the sleeping bus

I've heard about the sleeping bus and of course I had to try it out on my ride from Vientiane to Pakse. When my tuk-tuk arrived at the bus station I saw this behemoth of a bus looming over all other buses at the station. There was a sign on the back saying “Sleeping bus. King of bus.” I have to say, it regaled over the lesser buses with dignity.

Inside, it was crammed with double bed bunks, six one after another, on each side of the isle, lower and upper beds, for a total of 48 passengers. My bunkmate was a Laotian woman who unfortunately didn’t speak English. She seemed nice though and I’m sure we could have a conversation if only we could understand one another. All I could do was to practice my two Lao words, “hello” and “thank you” on her. In return, she answered me “thank you” in English when I handed her the water bottle.

The bunks are narrow and short. My bunkmate and I, both small women, were quite cramped on the double bed and bumped each other in the night. When I stretched out fully I could touch each end of the bunk. I wonder how the two huge Australian guys in the bunk above ours managed to squeeze in there.

Sleeping on a bus is not very peaceful, regardless if it’s the king of all buses. The bus has to drive on the road, after all. Even during the night there is traffic, so there are headlights coming in, the driver honks wildly, swerves on the curves, bounces up and down over holes in the road and so on. I felt quite helpless, lying in that bus, not being able to hold on to anything, bouncing left and right and up and down. Compared to a night bus ride on a seat, this one was in my opinion much less safe. On a seat I could wedge myself in and doze off for longer stretches of time. On this sleeping bus, I was constantly shaken awake by the wild driving.

Duct-taped window

Additionally, the window was cracked. Apparently it has been repaired using duct tape. I wonder how safe that was. I was glad I got the aisle bed so I didn’t have to think about what would happen if I leaned into the window too much during the night while I was sleeping.

I believe I’ll skip sleeping buses in the future. I saw it, I experienced it and now I know what it’s like.