Sam Neua

Located near the China border, the Sam Neua market was full of furry creatures we were sad to see laid out for eating. The importance of the National Park's conservation efforts was underlined by these market offerings. Even endangered civets were for sale. You could buy dead parrots, field rats, and other small birds and mammals.

The saddest though was guinea pig, still alive, stuck in a cage where it could only move forward or backwards about an inch, but not turn around. It looked terrified. And we felt incredibly sad for it to be imprisoned in this way.

The night market was full of highly processed meats, fairly typical for Laos street food, so we ate elsewhere. But first, the boys careened around the town square, riding around on tiny machines rented by a drunk man.Read more