Our bus to the XX caves (forgot to look up the name- at the in eastern Laos at the border with Vietnam) where high ranking officials hid in elaborate furnished caves during the IndoChina war was an evening one so we paid $2 to keep our room for the day and I spent it recovering from my long night.

The day before we had noticed two others mulling about trying to find the bus to Sam Neua, the town near the caves, and decided to pool our resources. Together, we figured it out and met for dinner where we could keep an eye out for the 8 PM bus.

Eight o'clock came adn went but we weren't too concerned. Lao buses are known for being somewhat sporadis. At 10:30 we were kicked out of the restaurant we were waiting in. Three hours later, at 1:30 AM, while the rest of the town was fast asleep, we finally gave up on the bus. I ugess we should've heeded the odd response when almost everyone we asked about the bus shrugged their shoulders, laughed and said, "I don't know".

Unfortunately, while we had paid for our we hadn't been able to communicate that we might need it to come back if our bus didn't arrive and when we returned, our door was locked. Richard and Nova, our traveling companions, had given warning to their guest house. So, we woke them up and all piled into one room. The next morning we were up at 7:30 AM for the bus back to Luang Prabang.

There is a lesson from all of this. The reason that there is a road less traveled is because there is no bus.