We opted for a village tour with a local jumbo driver. The jumbo driver was great. He was lovely and had a great sense of humour. He had photos in his jumbo and one showed him and his wife at the Sydney Opera House. I found this surprising as so many people in Laos live on so little, it’s hard to imagine them not only being able to leave the country, but to spend time in countries where the living cost is so many times more than what they are used to. At $5US per head, the village tour was a fairly cheap way to spend the afternoon. Before the tour, we were told that the conditions would seem harsh to us because these are real working villages. The people we saw actually live in these villages and make things to sell. They actors in a museum, pretending to work for tourists. We visited a real blacksmith village, a real Lao Lao whiskey village and also saw the production of paper, silk and silver (tourist …