The bus from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang

Mostly you know that if there is a bus trip involved then that means that the day is going to be hot, sweaty and some what uncomfortable. What you don't take in to consideration is that, the bus driver is on a suicide pack with all other local bus drivers and you'll spend majority of your trip hanging on for dear life!
To get from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang you have to go through some of the most beautiful mountainous country side. This entails a bus driver to drive like a maniac, at warp speed round blind corners and narrow roads. I was lucky enough to be sitting on the side of the road that had clear view of all verges and drop off areas. I even was privileged enough to catch a glipse of a rusty old corpse of a bus, that had come to rest half way down a mountain side. On it's roof. The driving didn't bother me so much as the other bus drivers who would overtake on mere strips of road, no bigger than a bicycle track. Mind you usually on blind corners at speeds that formular one drivers would take a chicane. So needless to say we came across an accident. Apparently, a bus had collided with a 4WD on a corner. That's what the story was coming from the driver of the 4WD but the bus drivers version was completely different!
Eventually a lone police officer (in sandal's) arrived on the scene and started to assess what had happened. Getting a rock...Yes a rock. He tried desperately to mark out the accident area, so that the convoy of gathering buses and cars could pass. This was a futile exercise, using a rock, and some handy man finally showed up with a tin of paint. Using a frond from a maze plant the Policeman marked the vehicles out on the road so finally the bus could move enough to let all waiting traffic pass through.
This, however, constituted as our toilet stop (picariously perched on the side of a mountain) and lunch stop (lucky I had foresight and got a take away sandwich) and we were flying down the mountain again at record speed.
Miraculously on time and alive, we reached Luang Prabang in enough time to scourer the area for place to stay and a feed before getting to bed exhausted.