Pak Lai

Got the pickup to Pak Lai.
I think we had 6 flat tires on the way...

Goats walking around while we were getting a wheel repair..
Stopped some where and got some of the flats repaired and then went down the road and changed them over again. The tires were worn out and they were just stuffing new tubes into them hoping to get another few kilometers... very strange. Made it an interesting trip though!

Ended up getting a room overlooking the Mekong...Saw some people lifting a house...
And found a nice restaurant for dinner.
I walked to the bus stop in theearly misty morning...

I saw the Monks doing their daily food collection...Got the bus to the Thai border.
There are a lot of big trucks on this section of road carrying lots and lots of rice...
Very dusty traveling along this section of road...

To the border town Keong Thao (Something like that).

A very dusty town...

Laos/Thai border crossing...Actually the border is the river...

Sayabuli

I caught a bus to Sayabuli.
I was the only white person on the pick up (mini bus/ute). These pickups usually care meant to carry about 13 people but there were 30 in this one. We crossed the Mekong river in a fairly isolated region...
On a fairly old barge...A fellow on the bus (Mr Oun Keou) invited me to come to visit his village while I was in the area. They were having a party for the week end.
I had trouble finding a way to get to the village so the first day was lost. I organized a fellow on a bike to take me the second day. It was about 25 kms and we had to do some river crossings and go through a heap of small villages on the way.I had to walk across this bridge while to motor bike rider took the bike across...Finally got to the village.. When I got to there Mr Oun Keou (who invited me) was not there. All the people gathered around to see what I was doing...Some one called Mr Oun Keou and told him there was a visitor there for him. He arrive about 1 hour later while I had a beer and watched the people watching me. They had organized a generator and a big stereo system. I think it was the Chinese new year party.

I asked him how often they get a falang (foreigner) in their village and he said I was the first to ever visit.
He took me around to some of the huts where there were people drinking a type of rice alcohol (different to rice wine) out of clay pots/Jars, through thin lengths of bamboo. I tried some.. it was fairly sweet.The were putting it into bottle as well for others to drink...Every one having a little bit of food and some beers...
A couple of ladies wanted to dance with me so I had to entertain the villagers...A heap of kids watching the strange behavior of the white man...In the afternoon the family got dressed in their traditional clothing and we got some photos together...

Northern Laos

Udomxai
Just a small town at a main intersection.
Spend a couple of nights here.
Lots of satellite dishes...

Not much to do.. some markets and some really cheap cheap food. All this cost about AU$5...

Had to get some one to help us eat it all. Watch carefully...

Two of us had a lot of trouble getting through it all.

Nong Khiaw
Caught the bus here early in the morning.
Bus started squirting fuel all over the road... We stopped and the fellow tried to tie the fuel line up with tape... didn´t work. I had a look and told him to take a line off the filter and put it to the fuel distributor to bypass the split hose... he seemed to under stand so he fixed it and we were on the way again.
Just around the corner we heard a noise like a gun shot.. this time it was the tyre on the bus which had blown out.. it was a pretty worn out tyre...
This was a really nice spot... bungalow on the river front and a few beers in the afternoon... nice.

Muong Ngoi Neua
This was a really nice little place up the river a bit.
We caught a boat in the morning.. every one piled onto the boat but it was sitting on top of arock and as they tried to push the boat out from shore it scraped a hole into the bottom and it started leaking...
Everyone got off the boat again and another boat came up to pick us up. Off we went up the river... very nice scenery here.
The boat started to splutter and cough and I could tell right away it was a fuel problem..they tried to start it over and over and they worked out it was the fuel pump.
The tank was sitting right down on the floor so I tried to tell them to lift the fuel tank higher so the fuel could fall down to the motor, but they couldn´t understand and said ´´no no ... won´t work´´. I tried to tell them a few times and they still didn´t try it so I thought it doesn´t really matter, I have all day they can sort it out for themselves. We waited for about 30mins for another boat and continued north to our destination. They floated the broken boat down stream to get it fixed... would have wasted a good day for them to sort that simple problem out.
They cram the people on the boats...
Nice river ride up through the mountains...Nice village...A lady sitting by a fire...
Sunset behind the mountains...
Went for a bit of a hike up into the mountains here...

There were people workng in the rice fields...

And stumbled across what looked like an old bath tub which was positioned next to where some water was coming out of the mountain...