Okay, so this place was pretty weird. It is a statue garden depicting heaven and hell. Not surprisingly, the Hell area was much more engaging.

The Bird-head guy is pressing people into waffles.

Further on, we got to walk into the serpents gaping maw, and down a long pitch dark tunnel.

General theme: dark skinned folks raping and stabbing light skinned people.

Up from the Statue Garden of Horrors were 199 steps that led to a pagoda, where you could see miles and miles of karst formations.

Goodbye Thaiand.

After a plane, a train, a bus and a ferry, we made it to Laos.

We took a two day cruise down the Mekong River.

This was our boat. It could comfortably seat probably thirty passengers, but there were only ten of us. Five Americans and five French.

Regular Lao people used little flat-bottom pirogues.

"Goodbye Joe, me gotta go Oh Me Oh My Oh.

Me gotta go row the pirogue down the bayou"

Jambalaya, by Hank Williams Sr.

There's a farming hut on the hillside. The steep slopes that they cultivate are quite impressive.

For much of the first day, Lao was on the left bank, and Thailand on the right.

More feats of steep-incline farming.

Yep..

On day one of the cruise, we stopped at this village.

Roofs were thatch, or corrugated tin. All the houses were built on stilts, even those that sat way up the bank.

Next to the boat dock, several families sold hand-woven fabric.

This is our best distance shot. The top of the village was on quite a high hill.

This girl followed us the whole time. She wanted money.

In general, the guides encouraged us not to give money, as it taught the kids to beg more.

A simple buddhist temple sat at the top of the village, and this is a view from its porch.

The cow made a melodious noise.

She is wearing a hand-carved bamboo bell.

Chillin.

Sarah tries her hand at the gigantic mortar and pestle.

Goodbye village .

We spent the night at this fancy bungalow resort.

We got bungalow 21.

Each bed had its own mosquito net. The bungalow had a nice modern bathroom, big cieling fans, and a wide view of the river.