We have our 2 day Mekong River Cruise in Laos. Before we start on the days, the middle night was spent at a lodge. Took a while to find the switch to get the electricity to work. And the night is spent under the mosquito netting. There are no windows as such as the shutters keep most of the dust out and provide the natural air conditioning for the room. Hot night unless you can find the breeze from the ceiling fan. The food is good, the entertainment, the local children's dance group. The beer is cold. The walk up from the boat is challenging.
Anyway we start early on the first day as we need to drive a couple of hours to get to the border and to pass through the "process" called immigration and customs. Here we diligently fill out forms, to find that if the name matches the passport, the rest is just scribble. Plus not to forget the $31 for the VISA, $30 of which is the normal VISA cost, the $1 being our gratitude to the worker for having to work on a Sunday; an overtime charge! We do get a receipt.
We board our boat and start our cruise. The country side moves between "jungle" or mountain trees and scrub, and villages with cleared land for sticky rice plantings. We see a variety of animals:
- the normal Laos Buffalo greyish / brown in colour
- the albino version, which is pink in colour when not covered in mud
- the odd occasional dog
- goats
- cattle
- chickens and ducks
- a couple of pigs
- but alas no elephants.
The stops on the two days involve a couple of villages to look at how they live and the wares for sale. The village on day 2 includes how they make whiskey from rice. Tastings are available, similar to schnapps. The other stop involved the Rock Cave, where many, many, many Buddhas are housed. It was first set up during the Vietnam War (which did spill over into Laos), and the Buddhas were taken there for safe keeping. Many have been left as the villages may have been deserted or there is insufficient money to rebuild the temple.
Overall it is a great 2 days relaxing, watching the scenery. When we arrive in Luang Prabang, we just make it inside before the thunder storm rolls in. The night market tour is out but dinner down by the riverside in the cool of the evening, is a great way to finish our 2 day cruise.
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| On board |
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| On board |
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| On board |
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| Village (note the satellite dish) |
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| Village |
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| Water buffalo (normal and pink) |
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| Lodge |
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| Lodge |
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| Entertainment |
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| River cruising |
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| River cruising |
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| Village temple |
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| Wares for sale |
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| River cruising |
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| River rock |
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| Rock Cave |
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| Our boat |
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| Rock Cave |
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| Night dining overlooking the boats on the river |
An amazing two days on the river with landscapes that we did not expecting. We spent time searching for the ( pink ) albino buffalo, 30 photos later........but again, alas no elephants, maybe later in the week. Carolyn
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