The 5 hour mini-van journey from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng reveals Laos’ mountainous terrain. Slowly climbing the winding mountain roads gives breathtaking views of rolling countryside and untouched lands. Roadside villages appear every 15 or so miles giving you a passing insight into their happy lives of near poverty – they bathe with hose pipes, live in shacks and are surrounded by their livestock of hens and cockerels. To a Western eye this seems disadvantageous but the Laos people laugh almost as much as their Thai neighbours and seem to find fun in everything they do.

When the sun went down 3 hours into our journey, the scenery disappeared and the winding roads became arduous and slow going. Bizarrely our driver only put his foot down when he was aggressively overtaking vehicles with his hand on the horn and bumper inches away from his target. In one case he harrassed a motorbike over-flowing with products from a roadside market for 3 minutes before the biker accepted that she couldn’t outrun him. I would have let him past after 10  seconds.

It was impossible to sleep in the minivan as all seats were occupied and the twisting roads had your head bouncing from side to side every few seconds. Our journey finally ended at Vang Vieng bus station at 8pm, some 7 hours after our 1pm departure. It should have taken 5 hours but our full van and slow driver killed time. I would advise anyone taking the trip to catch an earlier service to travel in daylight and travel faster. The temperature will of course be a trade-off.