We made it to Laos!!!! Jin is an official Road Warrior!

I guess the title says it all, we made it to Laos..... at last! We are now in Luang Prabang in central part of northern Laos. This city was described as "one of the most romantic cities in SE Asia" by the Lonely Planet, and I'd have to agree(although it also the first city we've stayed at in SE Asia!)
We had a harrowing 26 plus hour bus ride from Kunming, China to here. After that i'd definitely add Jin to the "seasoned road warrior" status... It dwarfed the 18 hour train ride we had the night before from Guelin to Kunming.
i guess i'll recap our road here. We left Yangshuo, China on the 29th and caught an hour and a half minibus to Guelin. From there we caught a train around 630pm. Our hard beds were comfortable as always, and our train had more foreign tourists on it than all previous train rides from the entire 8 weeks before combined. We had a great time hanging with a guy from Israel, a girl from the Czech Republic, and a really nice couple from Australia(who had spent the past month in Yangshuo climbing the awesome rocks nearby.) The train was relaxing, and I got to do some research on Lao and continue reading my book, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Arriving in Kunming around noon on the 30th, we were worried that it would be difficult to find train or bus tickets to Laos because of the May 1 Labor Day holiday, which is a huge event in China. Fortunately, after we got off the train, we were able to buy a bus ticket immedietely for later that night. Lacking any real info on Laos, and unsure of where exactly we wanted to start, we initially chose to get off at Udomxai, in northern Laos. However, after consulting the LP, we decided that it wasnt really the kind of place we wanted to spend our first days in the country at. Apparently Udomxai is filled with Chinese workers who have come to the country seeking employment and have turned it in to a sort of truck stop fronteir town of immigrants and with more Chinese culture than Lao. So, we talked to our bus driver and he changed our ticket to 4hrs down the road, Luang Prabang. Not bad for an extra 3 dollars!
We spent the day in Kunming, which is a pretty nice city as far as places in China go. It has been described as the florida of china, with a large retirement population and awesome weather year round. Unfortunately, we got stuck in traffic on a city bus after going to the post office to lighten our bags a little(sending stuff home,) and only got to the bus station 25 minutes before our bus left for Laos!
The bus was nice, and pretty luxurious compared to the other buses at the bus station in Kunming. It had a wide aisle and small double beds on one side and very skinny twin beds on the other side. Initially me and Jin thought we had seperate beds, but we actually had a double bed(actually about the size of a really really short(5'4" tall) twin bed.) At first we were super excited at how big and luxurious our beds were, but then we were told we were sharing a bed, and i'm sure the look on our face had more than a twinkle of unease.
The trip started off fine, heading down the roads of China towards the border. It was quite curvy in China, but that was just the beginning!
Around 10pm, we decided to head to bed. Maybe 15 minutes later the bus stopped and I thought we were taking a bathroom break.....On the side of the highway. But then we started going again.... Then the bus stopped a couple minutes later.... Then we started going again..... Then we stopped a couple minutes later..... This went on at least 15 times. the engine seemed to just stop running while we driving down the highway. It even stopped running in a tunnel, which is when I almost went and killed the bus driver for getting me killed in a Chinese tunnel(a constant fear of mine throughout china, tons of tunnels, with horrible crazy drivers passing everywhere, UGH.... AHHHH!!!)
Then we stopped again, and the drivers(at least 4 of them) got out and managed to actually fix the problem, to my shock! We then continued on and I semi fell asleep by midnight. The curvy road caused us to roll around all night, banging our legs and bodies on the windows and bars on the side of the bed. I definitely slept a little, i'm just not exactly sure when. I woke up around 5:30am in Mengla near the border. We were told that the bus couldn't cross the border until it opened around 8 or 9, so we would stop for a few hours.
I got an hour of amazing sleep, which did wonders for me. Unfortunately, close to 7am, I was awoken by a man, we think, who wanted to exchange my US dollars for Lao Kip. Jin was angry that he woke us up, and wouldn't let me do any business with him! I would have sworn that he was a girl had I not opened my eyes; we still aren't positive.
The Chinese border crossing was uneventful, and we made it to the Lao border area by around 9ish. There was a huge push of people trying to get to the tiny makeshift border stamping building. People were pushing, passing their passports to their friends at the front of the line, and everyone had some form of currency tucked in to their passport as they handed it to the Lao Guard! after a wait for quite a while, we were able to get to the front of the line, where Jin got her passport stamped. After putting no money inside her passport, the guard asked for 20yuen, or a bit more than 3US dollars. We gave him 20,000 Kip, or around $2.50. Jin was not amused, but I thought this was a classic border crossing moment! She was even more upset when I made it out without bribing him, but I guess that is one perk of being an American. 3 dollars may seem small, but if you imagine 1000, or even 300 Chinese people each giving you 3 dollars, that adds up to a fortune real fast, especially in Lao, where a decent hotel is 7 dollars, and a meal is 3 bucks!
I was feeling pretty alright when we got back on the bus. About a half hour later, we got to a "weigh station," which really seemed more like an excuse to pay off more Lao officials! We were told it would be at least 2 or 3 hours, but after our smooth bus drivers talked to the guards, and I'm sure exchanged a bit more Kip, we made it out in less than an hour! Woo Hoo!
From there, the trip got wayyyy worse! We had about 300Km of dirt highway on the curviest mountain roads you've ever been on! imagine driving to an unheard of Colorado mountain town, on a dirt road in a 60ft long bus, lying in a bed for 10 plus hours! It was insane! I was semi sick feeling the entire day, rolling back and forth around every curve! Jin wasnt much better. The bus just keeped bumping and we kept bouncing and rolling.... all day!
at last, we made it! around 8pm. I swear i had been on a small boat on stormy seas for the last day and a half.
Luang Prabang! At Last!