Trouble in Laos

I realize it has been ages since my last post and will most likely be another several weeks for a follow up for this one. I am in Laos now. Perry and I met back up in Hue (Viet Nam) before trekking through several hours of rain and across the Laos border. What is most surprising is how drastically different Laos is from Viet Nam even though they are so close together. Viet Nam is aggressive, loud, and overrun with traffic. Laos is calm and friendly with hardly any traffic on the road, an ideal place to explore by motorbike. We crossed the border without any hitches and continued into Laos just as the sun began to break through the clouds. Things were looking up, I liked Laos already and I hadn't been here more then fifteen minutes. We roared down the countryside road seeing far more goats and pigs then other vehicles. I liked Laos even more. Then just 20k outside of Savannakhet Ramos ran out of gas. I switched to the reserve tank and began heading back to the nearest gas station. Less then 2k down the road Ramos again came to a halting stop, this time the loss of power was preceded by the most terrible noise in the biking world. His engine had seized. Ramos had a heart attack. I tried not to let the feeling of despair sink in, instead Perry towed me back to the closest town and I rolled Ramos into a mechanic. He took one look at the top of the seized piston, laughed, and then motioned for us to take it into Savannakhet. It was growing dark and flagging down a flatbed truck was proving difficult. Finally a white truck pulled up and the girl in the passenger seat rolled down the window and spoke english to us. I was shocked by her ability to communicate in our language that the question she asked us didn't register immediately. "Are you Christian?" I paused, Perry answered, "Yes." It was the right answer, because the next thing we knew was that our Christian sister was ordering her Christian brother to help me load the bike onto the truck. Ramos and I had a ride, I was thankful. Little did I know I was going to be forced to defend my claim for the entire ride into Savannakhet. Somehow, but not without difficulty, I managed and they took us all the way in and right to the door of a mechanic. They discussed the price for me and after a few minutes told me that it was expensive, fifty dollars was the price quote. I ridiculous sum for a country like Laos, but after all Ramos did need an entirely new heart so I agreed. Then our Christian brothers and sisters dropped us at a guesthouse where we collapsed after the full days adventure. The next morning I went straight over to the mechanics, he said he couldn't do it, I began to panic. What now? We spent all morning searching for a mechanic who would take the job without success. Defeated we went back to our guesthouse where the owner, a very nice man who speaks some english, decided to help us solve the problem. Within the hour he had one of his mechanic friends willing to take on the project. I was relieved but still a bit sceptical. Well it took two days but Ramos breathes again. However the new piston is fragile and it will take some time to break it in, but the ride will continue. Tomorrow we set off for Vientiane. NTC