More Rafting

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The Canadian boys were slow to get up. The Lao lads were chipper and smiling. They had not mixed their drinks the night before. I watched as the fishing family boys went out in their dugout to catch breakfast. Their catch was wedged between a piece of split bamboo and cooked over the fire. It was scrambled eggs and bacon for us.

After more meandering down river and shooting some more rapids, we came to the mouth of the river. The Lao government is building a hydro-electric dam here which will end the river rafting and displace many people.

The river flows into a lake which itself was formewd by the construction of another dam. The lake is quite pictoresque with a maze of small islands, the remains of submerged hills.

We were met by our car for the 2 hour drive to Vientaine. The Lao Plaza Hotel is currently hosting conferences for military leaders and Economic ministers. It costs $3US to have a shirt laundered. It is really too posh for our tastes. Our tour organizer thought we might appreciate it after roughing it the night before. It is close by many of the attractions we want to visit. Something a little down scale would have suited us just fine. We say many nice guest houses around the city.

Needless to say, I put our sack of dirty laundry over my shoulder and went off up the street a couple of blocks and found a local laundry where our 10 pounds of dirty clothes were washed, dried and pressed for $6. We still had some clean clothes for our city tour the next day.

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Photos

Our Campsite
Looking up from the beach at our communal sleeping quarters.

View from our Campsite
Since we were shooting rapids yesterday, my camera was packed away in a waterproof bag. This is a view down to the river from our campsite. The boy in the boat is fishing for his breakfast. He slaps the water with his paddle to stun the fish and then throws his net.