The Day We Lived - Local Buses in Laos

We thought we would tell you a little about the buses in Laos. We have had good experiences and we have had really bad experiences. This beauty was a 7 hour ride we took from Luang Prabang to Phonsavan. As always, the first stop about 1 minute in to the journey is at the gas station - why they don't fill up before, we will never know. We would stop in all the local villages and we seemed to be the highlight of their day as all would come out to stare. Here the guys are loading planks of wood on the roof and tossing up big bags of rice. We have also seen motorbikes on the roof and inside, huge sacks of some produce and even cement bags. We had front seats on this one, but there was a large padded table area, where the 3 worker boys would lay - it looked like a massage table. I was also a little leary when one passenger got on with his machine gun - especially when he kept staring at me out of the corner of his eye! Weird, but we found out later that he was an armed guard as there are sometimes problems with bandits along that route!
Our next bus journey was pretty much downhill all the way and I don't think the driver used his brakes as we would slide from side to side along the windy road. All this while the music blared with some twangy Asian songs all the way. Because of all the crazy corners, the locals were puking all the time into plastic bags - I use my headphones and Michelle her earplugs so we don't have to hear the wretching!
They stop constantly to let on the local vendors and BBQ chickens on sticks, semi developed egg on sticks, baguettes, corn on cob, sticky rice in bamboo, and jack fruit in chili sauce come poking in the windows to buy.
Now to our worst journey. This bus seemed good at first until another bus passed us. He started racing the other bus into town so that he could stop first and get the fares! Absolutely ridiculous as he swerved dangerously around vehicles, over bridges and almost hit a small boy on the side of the road. Our screams to slow down didn't do anything, so we just decided to get off!! A good move on our part, but I don't know why everyone else just laughed it off! I have never gotten off a bus halfway before, but I thought my life was worth more than the $2!!! *Stub