Random Xieng Khuang

Onions drying in the sun in Muang Sui.

A hmong family chopping trees on the hillside below our hotel. They were all working hard. The dad patiently chopping out notches from a long log to make a ladder of sorts. The eldest son chopping branches off other logs, the mother and another son using a large-toothed two-handled saw to cut larger logs into smaller logs. And the middle son sitting on a log. Why aren't you helping, I asked the boy.

Oh, he's the lazy one, replied the father.

Outside Craters restaurant. It's a relatively new place that an Aussie UXO technician and his Lao wife opened. I've spent time with the Aussie guy in the past when traveling to XK for UXO work. Unfortunately, he has since left the organization he worked for. He's a good guy, with lots of good stories.

Plenty of UXO paraphenalia on display.

Me and m'boy visit a cave in Muang Sui. It was used as a hospital by the North Vietnamese army during the war. There were shards from used vials all over the floor of the cave.