From Odomxai we went by pick-up (tuk tuk)to Nong Khiew (aka Muang Noi). At a junction town an hour before Nong Khiew we got into a smaller pick-up and had to push it up the small hills as it had gear problems!
In Nong Khiew we stayed in a rustic rattan bungalow on the banks of the Mekong River. We looked across the river at a line of rustic tourist bungalows. We could imagine that it would look like Pai in North Thailand in a few more years!
After resting and doing laundry we walked 2 kilometres along the road out of town to a limestone cave that was used by the villagers in 1964 to shelter from the USA planes during the war. There was a huge crater in front of the cave where a bomb had exploded. The crater is now full of water lilies.
During the walk we saw a monkey in a cage, a woman distilling Lao lao- rice whisky, 
a dead scorpion, huge millipedes, 
children returning from the jungle with small birds (smaller than sparrows!) they had trapped in cages and were going to eat, a pangolin shell(like an armadillo) nailed to a restaurant wall (pangolins, the locals told us, could fetch $200US for a 12 kilo animal),
girls collecting jungle vegetables (like the tendrills off bean plants) to sell, and a caged animal like a possum that we couldn't identify.
a dead scorpion, huge millipedes, children returning from the jungle with small birds (smaller than sparrows!) they had trapped in cages and were going to eat, a pangolin shell(like an armadillo) nailed to a restaurant wall (pangolins, the locals told us, could fetch $200US for a 12 kilo animal), girls collecting jungle vegetables (like the tendrills off bean plants) to sell, and a caged animal like a possum that we couldn't identify.
We also managed to get bitten by leeches again!
