Rising early, Leslie took advantage of the Internet in a nearby cafe to make a few phone calls and check for emails, then we checked out of our guest house. The total cost for three nights, laundry, and the previous day's bike rental was less than $40, or $13 per day!
We met our guide, Sisomphom, from the guest house in Muang Sing, who had come down to pick us up and show us a few hill tribe villages en route to Muang Sing. We first visited the local market where we bought about 80 pounds of salt organized in small bags to give to village people. We bought about 200 school notebooks, and similar numbers of pens, pencils, some sharpeners. Leslie found lipsticks and a few nail polishes for the girls, and sewing needles for the older ladies, and we bought a couple hundred small bars of soap and packs of shampoo. Having used all our Kip (Lao money), we went to an ATM to get cash for the next few days.
Just a few miles out of town we found Ban Nam La village, where we later realized Victoria had filmed a baby healing ceremony for the Hmong Deaw (Blue Hmong) people, performed by a woman shaman named Lila. We had a picture of another woman that Victoria had given us, and the first villager that we showed it to told us they knew the woman but she had moved a kilometer up the road to another village called Pin Hau. Sure enough, villagers there pointed out her house right on the road, and when she came out she was the same but seven years older, a little thinner, and she would not smile for our photos because she was sensitive that she had lost some teeth! She did insist that she get properly dressed in traditional garb before we took her picture, and said that she had missed seeing Victoria for several years now. We said Victoria hoped to be back within a few months, and we would give her a print of our pictures to,bring back to her Her name is Neung Siya, and she claimed to be sixty years old with six sons, no daughters, and 28 grandchildren.
We proceeded to stop at a few other villages, and distributed some of our gifts. We were disappointed that few of the people were dressed in their traditional clothes, and those that were in traditional were mostly older women.
Arriving down into the valley of Muang Sing at about 2,000 feet elevation, we checked in to our bungalow, which we had selected because it was supposed to have Wi Fi, but which does not seem to be functioning.
During lunch Leslie started to feel ill, and quickly developed severe stomach problems and a fever of 101 F. Because of the fever we asked Sisomphom where we could find a Doctor. His father took us to the local hospital around 6pm. The doctor understood little English, but we explained the problem in English/Thai, showed him our medicines, and he told Leslie to take our anti-nausea meds and supplied some antibiotic from the hospital pharmacy for us and charged us $4. Hopefully this will get her well again.
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