When deciding between the air-con bus (which we actually took) and the more expensive VIP bus, we did not take into account the fact that most locals (who trael on the so-called air con bus, although the aircon actually consisted of bus windows that you can open)are not accustomed to road travel and therefore suffer disproportionately from motion sickness. So we ended up surrounded by vomiting Laos, in fact, this must be just the usual state of affairs on this particular route, since there was one chap whose sole job seemed to be to run up and down the aisles of the bus handing out sick bags, and we even had to stop to renew his supply at one point.
In addition, the bus driver, seemed to be a devout man, because he clearly placed considerable (i.e. a bus load) of faith in the good Lord Buddha himself when launching the bus at break-neck speeds around perilous bends in the mountainous road. We were sure that the bus was on 2 wheels at several points in the journey.
To top it all off, the aisles were filled with the usual bags of rice etc. that you find on local buses, or so we thought.... as we found at the end of the journey that several of those bags in fact contained live crabs, of which we found at least one crawling around near our feet. Note to self: avoid the crab cakes
