We arrived in Udomxai after a trip which was windy but chicken-casualty free. I think this was because, judging from the rear view mirror decorations, was Buddhist. He slowed down and honked, letting the chickens scramble across the street. It was a trip through green mountains past wood and bamboo villages. Sometimes the driver would stop trying to find some more passengers (there were just 6 foreigners inside). At one village men were carving a drum from wood. There was a loom under one house where a woman was working.