Laos: Muang Sing



Sizzle

Sunday, May 29 2005
We walked ten minutes away from guest house today with Roy and Ellen into a local village. All the adults were gone for some reason and we only saw children who begged for pens and candy as we walked by. The children would hold out there hands and say, "boo boo", which we think is Lao for candy. Too many other Westerners have already spoiled them. The only adult we did wee was and older lady selling bracelets. We bought one for 2000 Kip ($0.20) and passed on the weed she was also selling.

The map of the area from our guest house showed a waterfall and another village up the trail a ways. We decide to go for it. Roy and Ellen went back to the guest house. They may have been the smart ones. It was 11:00 AM and very hot and humid at this point.










We walked for a half hour when a man working the ground with a hoe yelled down from a hill above, "Where are you going?" I said, "Just walking." He didn't know much English and after pointing and asking him for several minutes which way to go, we figured he wanted us to turn around. To be on the safe side, we did. We walked another twenty minutes in the opposite direction and came across a village. We could see it in the distance and took some pictures from afar. We did not feel like invading these people's lives.










We walked back to our guest house. Tina wasn't feeling too good so she read and I updated my journal most of the day. At night we watched and incredible lighting storm to the west from our deck. We had clear skies directly above us with lightening bugs flickering below and lightening flickering above.


I went to sleep early while Tina read. Boom, bang, sizzle woke me up in the middle of the night. Tina was already awake by this and was freaked. Our nice little storm we watched earlier in the night was now directly above us. The lightening was striking so close I could hear it sizzle. The thunder was so loud! I've never had lightening strike this close to me. The lightening lasted only 20 minutes, but the rain continued to the morning. The next morning we talked to another couple who were staying 3 bungalows next to us and they said their lights flickered on and off during the night so the lightening was probably right on top of them. This storm was the loudest and scariest we've experienced since our trip, or ever for that matter.
May 26: Nam Tha
May 29: Muang Sing
May 30: Muang Sing
Jun 06: Vang Vieng
Jun 10: Vientiane
Jun 13: Phonsavan