laos - a trip down the mekong

As always, I hope all is well with you and yours.

hmm, it seems like i disappeared for a while, well I am back (until I disappear again)! I am currently in Vietnam, Hanoi to be exact, where I will be for a few days resting and catching up on things before I head North towards the Chinese border. I just spent a month traveling in Laos, mostly in the North and mostly by boat. i also did several "treks" to hill tribe villages. I will try to "piece" together a few different blogs to tell you about the experience. Hopefully, I will be able to go through and edit the 1,000s of photos that I took so I can include them in the blogs.

Before I forget, for all you beer drinkers I think that so far in my travels Vietnam has the cheapest beer. In Hanoi there are many little "stalls" on the streets that sell Bia (i think i spelled that correctly) and mostly beer from a keg. It cost about $.125 for a glass which is about 10-10oz in size. Speaking of Hanoi, if you are afraid to walk out in front of traffic you will never be able to cross the street. To cross the street you simply walk out into traffic and the scooters,bikes and hopefully cars will go around you. Kind of like a leap of faith. ok, I digressed, back to the trip to Laos

So far, Laos is near the top of my list for countries that I have visited, not for the food but for the people. I believe that there are about 6 or 7 million people living in Laos and also I believe there are over 40 different minority "groups" living there. The country is poor and the people work hard, especially the ethnic women who can work up to 18 hours a day, often carrying a 100 pound pack (of rice or whatever) for hours with just a strap across their forehead. I found the people to be very friendly and happy. They haven't learned to be aggressive against travelers (with the exception of maybe the boat drivers).

The trip to Laos started with a two day boat ride down the Mekong river from Chiang Kong in Thailand to the "star" of Laos; Luang Prabang. It was a scenic journey and the boat the first day was somewhat comfortable, full of backpackers who drank the boat dry. I think the lady who sold food and drinks had to restock on beer 5 different times in the small villages that we stopped at. I know better than to enjoy a beer while traveling on a boat without life jackets on a river with a fast current and rapids.

The boat stopped for a night at small town and we were greeted by the locals throwing firecrackers (some cherry bombs - those are the big ones that can blow your fingers off if your are not too careful'). We found out that it wasn't a typical greeting but that there was a big festival going on which coincided with the full moon and the throwing of fireworks was a custom (I wonder if throwing the fireworks at foreigners was a custom also???). I stayed in a nice guest house with a cold shower, the first of many to come. The next day there were two boats, both a little smaller than the one the day before. The river became a little more scenic and we stopped at a few more villages which provided me with a few "models/subjects" to photograph along with the other people on the boat. I wonder what it looked like from shore with all these foreigners with cameras leaning over the edge of the boat trying to photograph them. Speaking of photos, Click here for more photos from the trip down the Mekong

In addition to cargo boats plying the waters of the Mekong, probably from China and Thailand, there were also speedboats shuttling passengers to Luang Probang. The passengers, who looked like french package tour groups wore helmets and life jackets. These speedboats sped down the river which in places was rocky and shallow. if the boats hit anything, I think the passengers would have flown out of the boats so maybe they should have been given wings.

Since I will probably be sending out "a blog a week" I will keep this one short.

cheers,

David F O T O S B Y D A V I D. C O M

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