My eyes hurt. I killed five butterflies today by smashing in to them while riding my moto. One hit my sunglasses. I lucked out with the moto though. The buddy that I’ve been touring with had three breakdowns in three days. I only had to deal with four scarily loose bolts and one non-existant bolt.

My travels in Laos are coming to an end and they’ve been superb. Especially the last few days. Backtracking… Last night I stayed in a village at the mouth of a famous cave (Kong Lo). It just so happened that it was a party night to celebrate the full moon. So I got to dance my socks off, and gamble, and drink, and laugh, and play carnival games and eat with almost 2000 villagers and two other tourists. The region reminds me of the southwest (Zion in particular), except the rocks are black instead of red, and it’s a jungle. So beautiful.

That was the end of The Loop. Other bits included passing by almost a dozen large trucks ladden with hundreds of dogs in cages headed for consumption in Vietnam. And even more of the same trucks going the other way empty.

We rode by a huge dam site and reservoir. The first quarter or so was basically a tour of a development project like that. Quite interesting how they’ve built a very nice road to a remote area. Relocated the villages. And all of the nice pickup trucks driving about.

Stayed in a small village where the option for food was rice and vegetables. Anything else? No. Fun rats in the walls. Beautiful, hard rain. The reservoir goes right up to the village and the tree are still standing in the water.

My buddy Taylor’s moto broke down three times.

Swam. Saw another cave. Tried new foods. Today’s pick was Double Cheese Pork Burger flavored potatoe chips. mmmmm…. Food in general was pretty meager on the trip. Just not many options beyond noodle soup. The largest town that we stayed in had a restaurant named “The Only One” (but now there is another one).

Oh, and I thought I had worms, but now I don’t think so.