We spent our last day in Viang Veng at a huge lake. It was an artificial lake, created by flooding huge areas of farmland, of course displacing thousands of people. Electricity is Laos' biggest export -- there is a big dam at one end. The tops of some of the tallest trees are still sticking out of the lake. We had a guide who was big and fat, with long ears, curved out at the lobes -- like Budha. We visited the fish market and bought fish which we grilled on one of the islands that dot the lake. We also visited a small village and the people were really poor and depressed looking. They should take that off the itinerary. Actually, even though the lake was pretty, it was also pretty boring. We took a
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