Laos..

The road to Luang Prabang was very, very windy, not the wind, but the bends!! We went around and around and around and then up and up and up and can we e v e n m a k e i t to the top of the hill? Yes, and then tear downdowndown and around a corner. The erratic Asian driving sent passengers grabbing for little plastic bags that were hanging from the hand rails. Bag in hand, they would throw up. Once the bag was full, they tossed it out of the bus window. In order to avoid the bags, I sat with my head out of the window, breathing in the mountain air, feeling the moisture of the low lying clouds and watching as the gorgeous mountain scenery went by. Anything to take my mind off the craziness happening inside the bus. The hill tribe villages were fantastic. The only road north has little villages scattered along it. People were living in rickety thatch homes with piglets and huge pigs running everywhere. Water pumps provided the villagers with the water they needed. Old people were sitting in their postcard poses on their shaky front steps. Dirt-streaked, naked children were running around with roosters in their arms. People were bathing under the water pumps and kids were squatting in their own backyards because they had no toilets.