I got to ride a motorbike again.... The thing was great. Nothing on it worked - no speedometer, no fuel gauge, no odometer, and changing gears was a crap shoot. Sometimes you'll get the gear you want, sometimes you won't. But I loved it!
We rode out to the small town of Vieng Xai to visit the caves. The Pathet Lao (communist rebels that became the government) lived in these huge caves for nine, yes NINE, years while the US military unloaded over 2 million tons of bombs on the Lao countryside. We ate noodle soup with spoons made from leftover scrap metal.