security on the bus in Laos

security on the bus in Laos
Originally uploaded by neal_mcquaid.

To leave Luang Prabang and head to Vientianne, the capital of Laos, we decided on the night bus (it's 12 hours so would get is in perfectly for a day in the capital).

So after booking ourselves onto the local bus service, we were crammed on with all the locals. That's fine and really much more fun as you get to see the real Laos, however when the started cramming people into the aisles I started to get worried!
And then a kid younger than me sat down with this between his legs......it turns out all of northern Laos is still bandit country so they've armed security on the night buses. Hmmm!

As for the people in the aisles? Well, I had an old woman sleeping with her head against my knees, and Sean had a girl sleeping on his shoulder. Dawid had the good idea and took the window seat.

We never did see any bandits. Was almost disappointed in the end :)