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.

Laos.

My last morning in Luang Prabang, I woke at 5am with the roosters. The morning was still fresh and still cool. The monks walked by me on their way to the merit makers. It’s very humbling to be passed by a long line of saffron-robed men and their bowls.

I had only been in Laos for fourteen days, but it was enough to feel the relaxed atmosphere of the country. Laos was a place that I had always wanted to get to, but had never really thought I would see. I had been scared of the threat of bombing and border trouble, but my trip was as far from that as it could have been.

Laos

Laos was a country which made me slow down, watch the sunsets and appreciate the little things in life. Kids were happy here, swimming and playing. Ducks wandered everywhere and one boy tried to hand me a rooster. I'm not sure what he wanted me to do with it!

At first, I was a little wary of this bridge and whether it would hold my weight. After a few minutes of watching it, I noticed people riding their motorbikes across it. After spending a few days in Vang Vieng, I even rode a bicycle across it.

The bus trip from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang was a gruelling nine-hours. The bus was so full it seemed to be bursting at the sides. The aisles were crowded with people sitting on little plastic stools. As a foreigner, my legs were folded and crammed into seemingly impossible positions. Huge bags of rice were shoved into a space on the doorstep and a chicken was tied by the legs and placed into a little bag. A boy climbed out of my window in order to place bags onto the roof. (Remember the rice at the door?) If there was a checklist for craziness on a bus in South East Asia, we had met every criteria. With a shudder and a burst of black smoke – we were off.