On the map of Laos, Vientiane and Luang Prabang don’t look that far from each other–about 300km. Wrong. They are only 300 km from each other, but the bus ride takes 9 hours. Why, you ask? Well, mostly because the road is a NZ-style curler that winds around hill after hill, meaning that the speed limit is 30 km/h. Yes, you heard me right. 20mph.

You would also assume that a Lao bus would probably be bare bones, with no exciting amenities. Wrong. Lao buses are equipped with TVs that play Thai and Lao karaoke songs for nine hours, which means that if you have no iPod, you are quite likely to go insane.

You would think that spending 9 hours on a bus going 20mph along a curly road listening to Thai karaoke would be tedious. Wrong. It was fantastic. First of all, you get a free lunch at a local restaurant (which isn’t all that delicious, but is free) and they give you a snack and some water, like on the Thai VIP buses. Second, the Lao bus drivers are not demented maniacs, a la China or Cambodia, drivers with a death wish who want to meet their maker traveling at speeds that make your blood stop. They actually go the speed limit, which in turn gives you the chance to look out the window and see the life outside.

I saw bare bottomed babies and girls riding upright on bikes and boys walking down the street with their arms around each other and old women drying palm leaves on the streets and entire families bathing in outdoor showers next to the road and lazy dogs lying in the dirt and bands of kids walking to/from school and people sitting inside darkened houses looking out and magnificent limestone cliffs and smoky valleys and curvy roads and families with four to a motorbike and school yards full of laughing children and women gossiping inside shopfronts and a handful of white tourists walking around and one overturned oil truck and one beautiful little boy with a baby strapped to his back, all alone, waving to the bus from the side of the road.