Going up the Nam Tha river was our first river trip in Laos. We stayed over night in the boat mans house but unfortunately our hosts couldn't speak English nor could we speak Lao. Even Lao Lao (Laotian Whiskey) didn't help much so much of the night was spent just looking at each other and smiling. We were served sticky rice and soup with lots of unidentified floaty bits and congealed blood. The hosts gladly cleaned up what we didn't eat.
Much of rural Laos is undeveloped and the villages, like this one, are a jumble of bamboo huts with kids chickens dogs and pigs running around.