Meet Your New Bedmate

The sleeper bus to Vientiane

Last night I was forced to sleep with a Laotian man.

Wait, let me clarify that: next to a Laotian man.

I had never heard of a sleeper bus. I’ve been on plenty of overnight buses where the intention is to sleep, or on a number of longer bus journeys where your mind is numbed into somnolence. But never an actual sleeper bus.

No seats. Not even reclining seats. Simply a full-length, double-decker bus with beds on either side of the aisle. And, of course, these are double beds, hence the requirement that I share my double with another passenger.

Overall, if you have to spend 12 hours overnight in a bus, it really isn’t a bad way to go. Sure, it’s cramped. The length of the compartment was just a couple inches too short for me to lie down completely with my legs straight. My Laotian bedmate snored. Somebody’s socks smelled. The bus rocked and rolled down the highway.

Honestly, my biggest worry was that my new bed-mate would turn out to be a snuggler. Or, God forbid, that in my pleasant sleepfulness I accidentally mistake him for someone else. Egads!

But he didn’t, and I didn’t. (Mutters prayer of thanks.) So minor discomforts aside, it was a far better 12 hours than if I’d been sitting the entire way, no question. Got into Vientiane (pronounced Vieng Chang—that’s what happens when French colonialists start spelling things), the capital city of Laos, right at the crack of dawn.