An Action Packed Day

---

Geo: 12.4924, 106.025

Started with pancakes for breakfast at 7am and then on the bus to the Laos border on the Sen River. We hopped on the local boats and headed up river which is very wide and quite swift.

It is coming into the winter dry season here and you can easily see how high the river was in full monsoon, about 10 metres above 'normal'. There are a lot of islands and trees in the river. The tops of some of the trees are bent. downstream, as if they were in a strong wind. Others have their roots exposed and they look like long hair blowing back from the tree.

One of the highlights was seeing a rare freshwater dolphin. There are only four in this area so we were very lucky. However photos would not do it justice so you will have to trust me.

We walked up through the jungle to a waterfall, not as impressive as Gulfoss in Iceland but still pretty good. The jungle was relatively open and there were some large trees that looked like New Zealand beech. No snakes or other beasties, alive or fried to be seen.

Back down the river, a stop at a village in Laos to say we had been there (no passport stamp though) and then to another village for lunch. There were some cute piglets running around but they had disappeared after we had eaten....

The final adventure for the day was kayaking down the river which was great. We went in amongst the trees in the river and dodged all the bits of fallen wood - well most of us did. I was traveling with the guide so luckily didn't taken an unexpected swim. We will all sleep well tonight at the pleasant Gold River Hotel.

---

Comments

[Margaret]

Gosh I thought you were at Tanemahuta. Called by the house yesterday and alls good.