Y\u2019all know how much I love driving like a madman through the twisty-turny mountain passes. Well, our driver for to-day loves it every bit as much \u2013 and in a bus<\/em>, rather that a Geo Metro. And the mountain roads are quite narrow, to boot. Let\u2019s just say that his <\/em>ding ding (or, more accurately stated, his honk honk) got plenty <\/em>of work work.<\/p>\n Pretty sure I\u2019ve never in my life contracted motion sickness; but on this day, even my<\/em> heretofore immune stomach turned over a time or two.<\/p>\n The scenery, of course, was aces.<\/p>\n We stopped for lunch at the crossroads town of Phou Khoun. The menu for the restaurant in front of which the bus dropped us off:<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the view from the town.<\/p>\n And here\u2019s the view of the restaurant across the street from the restaurant in front of which the bus dropped us off.<\/p>\n After lunch, the real<\/em> fireworks began. I\u2019d been riding alone \u2018til then, but we picked up some more travelers in town; including a nice-seeming local gentleman with whom I shared the second half of the ride.<\/p>\n It had already<\/em> been twistiest\/windiest\u2026mountain road\u2026ever<\/em>. But somehow it now became twistier\/windier still<\/em>. My stomach was in a state of permanent quease. By that point, I\u2019d not eaten for about twenty hours, so there wasn\u2019t anything up for me to chuck. Otherwise, I fear I might well have.<\/p>\n My companion wasn\u2019t so lucky. He spent the entire time bent over, chundering into plastic bags and tossing them out the window. Girl in front of me the same \u2013 only she was also hocking loogies and attempting to spit them out the window. But of course, they right-angled and headed back toward me<\/em> splatting on the side of the bus rather too near my person.<\/p>\n I let cry a, \u201cHey!\u201d and later a, \u201cGod damn it!\u201d She looked at me quizzically each time; but she just would not comprehend the physics of the matter (nor, certainly, the English language), and so I resorted to fashioning a shield out of the curtain.<\/p>\n And it worked!<\/p>\n They weren\u2019t the only two, neither. Seemed like about half the riders were heaving it up. Why will not they learn: eat your Chicken Food after<\/em> riding the mountain bus, not before?<\/p>\n While stopped in a small town to let somebody off, noticed that these three girls \u2013 while very cute \u2013 weren\u2019t waving the bus.<\/p>\n So I took it upon myself to wave to them first, which got the ball rolling and how. <\/em>Their little brother even ran over to join them, performing this odd-looking wave with the outside<\/em> of his hand facing the bus.<\/p>\n Arrived in Phonsavanh too late to look around much, but did note one interesting concept. The Fresh Market stays open after dark, so the vendors use candles to illuminate their stalls.<\/p>\n Appears that a guided tour of the Plain Of Jars won\u2019t cost as much as I\u2019d feared \u2013 $25 for an eight-hour tour (including price of admission to the Jars sites), plus an evening screening of The Most Secret Place On Earth<\/em>, a great-looking documentary<\/a> concerning the U.S. bombing campaign.<\/p>\n One possible backfire: this operator\u2019s tours look so interesting, I may end up taking more than one of them! There\u2019s even one on which you can hike a part of the Ho Chi Minh trail.<\/p>\n How if we tie up some loose ends?<\/p>\n First, a few recommendations.<\/p>\n And this, a great new video from Josh Ritter. Josh driving a motor-car with a bull elk as passenger in a construction-paper stop-motion animation video? Count me in!<\/p>\n![\"chickenfood\"](\"http:\/\/durianapocalypse.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/chickenfood.jpg\" "\\"chickenfood\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0[And Now For Something Completely Different]<\/h3>\n
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