#18 Pak Beng

After dark the first night we arrived at Pak Beng. PB is a nice little one street town. Without these river cruises. There were 100 passengers aboard. We were assailed by many touts from the local guesthouses. This young lady is trying to persuade this frustrated passenger to stay at her place. The boat tied up to a steep rocky bank. No stairs, no rope to grab. Not for the handicapped. Most bags had been stowed. It was chaos.
"Come stay at my guesthouse". "Have hot shower"! I'm not one for walking around with full gear looking for the best deal. I chose a sweet shy young ladies place. It was in the Lonely Planet. This last image shows a Lao shower. The two large thermos like bottles are filled with very hot water. The guest mixes the hot with cold from theshower hose and uses the ladel you see inside the bucket, to pour over yourself. I used a cold rince to begin.
Ice is nam KEN in Laos. Here is a self portrait on my balcony with an evening cocktail of Sang Som nam ken. For dinner I had chopped buffalo in a too spicy sauce. I was offered Marijuana two times the first day. First, on board by a Lao man, and again by the restaraunt manager!
How about one more?
Doahlah

#18 More Mekong

Hi. This first image is the photo undeformed! The second is approaching a tall shoreline cliff. Getting closer reveals a cliff with an elaborate Buddhist temple inside. This boat may have hired by the faithful, giving merit. Late afternoon.

More coming ,Duck

#17 an experiment

Helllooh. I tried to drag these shots to make a row across the top. The fourth one stretched out. It wouldn't unstretch. Weird. I'll post it and see what it looks like.
D.

#16 more Mekong river people

Halloh. Okay, I think its working. The Mekong is the tenth longest river in the world. It lows more than 4,000 km from China to the sea in Vietnam. As we cruised, there would be long intervals of no obvious civilation. Then a single house in the jungle above the high water mark. Then, a small village. These first two images are Lao women bathing. They are very modest. They keep covered as the bathe and wash heir long hair.

The boat made a special stop to let these children come aboard to sell chips, soda, water, and Lao beer. As all that stuff was available already, they didn't do well.
The boat made several stops to take on cargo, and sometimes let someone off. The arrival always drew a crowd. I'm going to try something diferent.

Doahlah

#15 The mighty Mekong

Hi. I just check the previous post. The photos are not there, just the word photo. I clicked on the word, and photo appeared full screen. I looked at previous entries, same same! If this one does the same thing I will look for another terminal. Soon i will go to Taiwan to visit Annie. Besides that I looking foward to seeing her, pehaps she can help me with all this conflict I have with Picasa and Blogger.

Most boats carry bumpers called fenders. They protect the boat from damage tying onto piers or other boats. Saiboats have nice looking white rubber cylinders, working boats use old tires. Mekong boats use wooden poles. They are long enough to protect the gunwale near the waterline, and a similar protrusion at the roof of the boat. These boats are all built the same. This 'fender' is lifted up and resting on the gunwale.

The first, I was seated near the bow. Here is a shot looking foward toward the pilot.
This photo is a little later. It's nap time for some.
I'll try again.
Doahlah

#14 On to Laos

Halloh. I have an occasional problem. I will finish a blog, push publish post, and I'm told I'm not on line. Here goes something.
To get to Laos, it's a six hour drive to Chiang Kong and then a river crossing to Huay Xai, on the Laos side of the Mekong. There you catch the boat for the two day cruise to Luang Prabang. There is a night spent in Chiang Kong, then alot of bologna getting across.

This first photo is crossing on the longtail boat to the Lao side.

This photo shows climbing down slippery dirt bank to get aboard.







Looking through the boat toward the Lao shore. Lets see if this works!

Ducklass

Memo next, dinner at Ooys

Halloh, my friend Pang had her baby five months ago. Her doctor was afraid the baby would come too early and ordered her to stay in the hospital the last month of her pregnancy. She didn't much like that, but obeyed.
Mutual friend Ooy (in the purple shirt) organized a dinner party. Pangs husband is Aay is on the right. Pang is wearing a white blouse. Her sister in wearing a hat and pink sweater. Notice that most everyone is bundled up. In the evenings in C.M. the temp. drops to about 65 F.

Pang was going to name her son Gang Ho, which means mixed salad or mixed food. She decided on Pet, which means Diamond because her husband works with silver and stones in the jewelry industry.
For nearly a month now Thailand has been in chaos. The big joke among my farang (foreigner) friends is that someone (I don't know who) rated Thailand the 7th most dangerous country in the world to visit. As my ex Sue used to say, "Oh pahleeze!" For more than a week 160,000 tourists were stuck at the airport.
Until this week, a tourist could enter and stay in country for 28 days without buying a visa. After that you can leave and return for 28 more. In typical Thai govt. folly, it has decided that a tourist coming in by land will only get 15 days. To get 28, you have to fly in! Apparently,this is to encourage tourist to fly! The air industry is crippled. Few tourists even want to come here!
I will make my visa run to Laos tomorrow. I will take the two day slow boat down the Mekong river to Luang Prabang, then the bus to Vientienne and back into Thailand. I am flying to Taiwan to visit Annie on Jan. 2. In order to avoid buying a $60 visa, I have to stay out of country until Dec. 20. I am a cheapskate so I will spend that money visiting more of Laos then originally planned. I'll write when I find some internet.
Luvv, Duggg