Over the Mekong

Mon 26 Jan

One of our favourite walks is over the other side of the Mekong. We take a local boat, joining motorcyclists, a couple of cars or trucks and local folk for the 10-minute ride over the fast-flowing brown river.

Local boat.

On the other side is a small village with a long paved pathway between the houses parallel to the riverbank which leads out into the woods beyond. On its way it passes three temples: Chomphet, Long Khun and Had Siaw. Visitors to the first two are greeted by ticket-sellers who sit all day at tables, waiting for the occasional wandering falang. We are asked to donate 10,000kip (that’s about 80p).

The ticket-seller.

As I have often mentioned, there are very few birds in Laos (cheap protein) so when I hear birds I tend to look to see where they are. At Long Khun I was just standing near the wat, trying to spot a songbird I could hear in the trees above when I became aware that the ticket-seller – in this case a man – was also gazing at the tree. Ahhh – that’s nice, I thought, a bird-watcher. As you can imagine, I was a bit taken aback to realise he had catapult and stones in his hand, with which he then proceeded to shoot into the foliage. Fortunately he was not successful but I had to admire his skill – or at least his optimism in thinking he could hit a moving 10-cm target from that range.

Leaving Long Khun behind we then scrambled up a wooded hillside, following a line of golden lotuses set on wayside rocks, to an area dotted with golden Buddhist statues.

 On the way back through the village we passed children playing in the street and coming home from school.

These kids were playing "throw the flip-flop" and French skipping.

Walking home from school.

In the dry season the banks of the Mekong are fantastically fertile and sandbanks even the get planted up with beans and peanuts.

Then home again to Khoun and Khone’s for Khone’s delicious red curry and rice with tempura egg plant. Meena, K&K’s daughter, has set up a small business doing traditional Lao embroidery. She's just finished this one. It's taken her two weeks and she'll get about £80 for it.

Meena and her embroidery - a collar for a Lao wedding.

Another of our favourite walks is up the valley from K&K’s along the Dong river valley. As we move further away from the town, the villages become simpler, the people less sophisticated – and (mostly) friendlier, and the houses more ramshackle. Here the cooking is done on open wood fires and the families gather in the late afternoon to eat and talk outside their homes.

Trevann wisely walks well clear of the landslip.

The bridge at the foot of the Nam Dong dam. Constructed in the 1970s to provide power for the royal residence in Luang Prabang, it was the first hydroelectric power plant built in Laos.

I was trying to convey the scale of these elephant ear leaves. They're about 5 foot long!