Safe and sound in Luang Prabang (Again)

So we're back from our trip to the remote owns of Nong Khiaw and Muang Ngoi. Lots of stuff to do , and lots f fun o be had. We met a group of Canadians in Nong Khiaw, and hung out with them for much of the duration. They were planing to have a campfire under the bridge in Nong Khiaw and invited us over. Lots of fun until someone put a piece of bamboo on the fire. Then it became exciting! POW! Bamboo does have sealed air chambers, and air expands when it heats up. Soon after the blast, two Lao guys came over. "Sabaidee", they said... "Sabaidee", we answered... "Go home", they suggested. We decided to listen to them. They didn't say "please" or anything, but the pair of AK-47's they were toting made things crystal clear. I bet that'll never happen in Orleans.

We all took the boat the next day to Muang Ngoi, a small village only accessible by boat. We stayed in little bamboo bungalows with hammocks. Great place. We explored a series of caves that were pretty cool. One of them had broken pieces of pottery (yay!) and other artefacts. I'm pretty sure it was used as a hospital during the war. There were still little glass vials and brittle blankets. We also found a water buffalo in one of the caves that scared the living daylights out of us. You just don't really expect to see buffalos in caves.

We also went fishing with a guide, and had more snake for supper (this time, it was Boa Constrictor). We were also invited to some sort of party. As far as I can tell, a woman had just had a successful cesarian and everybody thought it was a great excuse to bang on drums and get loaded. We had lots of shots of Beer Lao, Coffee liqueure, a kind of wine, and Lao Lao (a rice whisky). Cool stuff.

Everything was really cool about this place, up until the very last night. I was awakened around 2aqm by some movement and creaking noises outside. I thought someone was using our hammock and testing the door. I made some noise and shined my flashlight around to show I was awake. The person scrambled off. It wasn't until morning that I realized that whoever it was, was trying to unlock out door. Indeed, he had cut out a hole in the door just big enough to slip an arm in to unlock the latch from the inside. Scary stuff. I'm glad I didn't get up to confront him if there was a knife involved. It's pretty stupid too, because even if he had managed to unlock the door silently, merely opening the door would have made such a loud creak we'd be awake in a flash. I showed the owner in the morning, and he had the police come over. We found a swiss army knife in the garden out in front of our bungalow, but that was it. The owner felt really embarassed, but we were all safe and nothing was missing. All's well that ends well.