1. Diesel fumes - Brings with it always the promise of adventures ahead, of a road trip to somewhere i have never been before. Reminds me of those cold mornings at the bus station, having to wake up early in the dawn to catch a tuk tuk/pick up to the bus station, and then huddling around in the dusty old bus depot, trying to spot the bus (not an easy task if you don't read the local language, and buses labelled Luang Prabang, for instance, may end up in Udomxai) and breathing in liberal amounts of diesel fumes as bus drivers warm their engines up. Especially love the Lao buses which look like a blast from the past, very retro and hippie looking with flowers hung over the license plates too.
Above: Cold morning at the Luang Nam Tha bus depot
Mornings as such are almost always spent trying to warm myself as much as possible (standing near the engines), with noodle soup and hot coffee being the preferred breakfast (which you can slurp down in a hurry), followed by a hunt for the toilet (toilet mafias, having a monopoly situation at bus stops few kilometres from town, charge exorbitant prices for these necessary visits before long bus rides). Then its off we go when they finish loading the cargo onto the bus - which from what i've seen thus far, could include motorcycles, live chickens, rice, bed frames, amongst other less interesting (and definitely more companiable) items.
A typical day at the bus depot thus involves an early morning crawl outof bed to get there early enough to get a ticket, finding the bus, getting on and putting some personal items on the seat to "reserve" it, which normally, for us backpackers, involve socks, mittens and old shirts (which we wouldn't mind losing), getting off to wolf down a quick breakfast at one of the stalls around the bus depot, looking for the toilet, and then getting on again, this time strapping our packs to the overhead racks as best we can to keep it from falling off and hitting some poor soul sitting under it.
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