The first page of this album is of the little village on the Mekong river known as Ban Xang Hai.  Apart from being a good place to stop on the way to the Pak Ou Caves to get some feeling back into our backsides (no pun intended) from the hard seats on the boat, it is also known for its rice wine distillation.  The villagers however, like to put snakes, scorpions, etc, into the wine - not to sure for show or for flavour... but I wasn't game to find out.

 

Ban Phanom on the other hand is a silk weaving village where I got to see for the first time what the stages for silk making is.  From the silkworms themselves; to the cocoons made from one strand of silk; to the silkworm moths; to the silk pressing; and finally to the actual weaving.  A quite interesting fives minutes worth - before the girls started checking out the silk products on sale.