Two days of pretty much floating down a creamy chocolate river, the banks sparsely populated with Laotians who depend on the river for everything, the jungles pressing in and blurring your senses, the heat, the cool beer Lao from the old woman in the back of the boat, the chug of the engine, the new friends you've been thrown in with... this experience is difficult to put into succinct words.
You can click on any of these photos for a better view- I uploaded pretty large versions!
boarding our boat: Jo, Chelsea, and Jeff
the engine in our boat- our friend Jo checking out the workings. Jo, from Sweden, and her hubby Jeff, from Belgium, were some of our favorite characters on this leg of the trip. we ended up spending a lot of our time in Luang Prabang with them
the long boat is the traditional trading vessel up and down the Mekong River. Like many riverboats, people live on them. They raise their livestock on them, and hang their laundry off the back to dry. The back porch typically functions as our kitchens might.
most of the long boats we saw on the river were well kept and painted with bright colors- people took great pride in their boats
a typical village on the banks- many villages had small gardens or herds of water buffalo, or fishermen or playing kids on the river bank. most seemed to consist mostly of small wooden shelters and maybe a couple of public buildings
Chuckanucka and Nigel enjoyed the float!
finally- a good view of a typical long boat. the captain steers from the front, all the tourists sit in the middle, the engine is housed at the back, and the kitchen/work room is on the porch at the rear. the Thai border was only opened to tourists about 10 years ago- until recently, these boats were mainly used for commerce- moving rice and goods through the country. A few bold backpackers started bartering for travel on the boats, and a small cottage industry has now sprung up to accomodate travelers. We didn't see many other people- and definitely no one that wasn't game for discomfort, health risks, and a good spattering of the unknown!
long boats come in all sizes- some with more elaborate houses- these people have a satellite dish- very progressive!
livestock on the river's edge
May and Chelsea chat -the boat stopped every couple of hours at small villages- we would sometimes clambor out onto the rocks along the river
commercial boats- these were hauling rice under their tarps. Passengers (not tourists!) rode on top of the tarps.
every time we stopped at a village we were greated by very energetic children pushing packaged snacks- who knew you could get this far away from America and still get Pringles? Ick.
the river coursed around rocky fingers that poked up through the fine sand of the banks- some of the rock formations, especially father south, were beautiful!
I spent a lot of time just staring out into the landscape, perched on the edge of boat
the drink of choice- cold Beer Lao, in a huge bottle. an old woman sat in the back of the boat and sold these to us out of a cooler
another village- note the fishermen in their long thin wooden boats at the water's edge
picturesque... a slower way of life
"locals" on the river bank
inside the boat- backpackers stretched out everywhere! we slept, chatted, read, played games, drank, stared out into the jungle, and reflected on life...
this village is unusually close to the water- note the thatched roofs, and in the background the clearcutting on the hills
crops grown on the nutrient-rich banks of the river. We saw this all the way down, but never really figured out what they were growing
beautiful!
the river was slow and chocolatey, but under that opaque surface hides jagged rocks that our captain had to manuveur around. we only traveled while it was light out- no GPS used here!
houses perched on a hill
water buffalo, post swim
Jeff and Jo hanging out in the boat- you can barely make out the great stiff wooden benches we got to sit on- so happy we had a couple of pillows!
little fishing boats, all lined up at the shore
Chelsea in Pak Beng, where we spent the night, along with everyone else on our boat. We were spread out among a couple of guesthouses. We had many chances before we even got to Pak Beng to reserve a room, and Dave and I decided to do that with a couple of friends when we crossed the border. We were met at the water's edge in Pak Beng and escorted to our guesthouse, which turned out to be very nice. Pak Beng was nothing more than the other river villages we had passed, until the recent influx of tourists. Its located half-way between the border crossing and Luang Prabang, making it the obvious place to stop for the night. Most of the guesthouses and restaraunts have sprung up along the one main street in the past couple of years.
That night we had dinner with a large group of kids from our boat. We all sat at one long table and feasted wildly. Someone started talking about how much Dave looks like Jesus (yes, he knows, you're so creative) and somehow that lead to this fantastic Last Supper photo.
a foggy morning over the river
gorgeous!
morning fisherman, scantily clad
by the second day on the boat, everyone was fast friends- even Chuckanucka and Nigel made a new friend -Jo from Sweden
the bulbous cliffs near the end of the float- somewhere in here are famous caves, but we never got a chance to check them out
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