Sam Neua

Unfortunatly, another side effect of the voyage to Sam Neua was that I managed to catch a cold. Combined with the long travel and the lack of sleep the night before meant that my first day in Sam Neua was unproductive to say the least. I woundered around, and managed to stay awake till 3pm. I was hoping that the next day would be better.

First, I had a problem, I was running out of clean clothes, and couldn't find anybody to clean them for me. So the next morning I had to wash a portion of them myself which (not being used to it I guess) took pretty much all morning.

In the afternoon, I was going to head to Vieng Xai for a few hours which is even further east and even closer to the Vietnamese border. This was the town that the Pathet Lao's revolutionary force used as a base. They had built very impressive caves inside the limestone-walled valleys as shelter from American bombardment.

I had time to visit one cave, before it started to rain, combined with a huge lack of energy (probably due the flu and the recent travels) meant I didn't have the heart to thrudge further. So I headed back to the bus station and waited to go back to Sam Neua. The very next morning I would be heading to Phonsavan via a 8hr bus ride.