Going further north on the river Mekong

As recommended by a traveller whom we met earlier, we decided to go further north on the river Mekonga on a cargo boat. It was good for us being ahead of time on the boat, as we managed to catch one of the few good comfortable seats - as comfortable as a seat could be, if one has to spend 10 hours sitting on it.

Every now and then the boat stopped to drop off passengers and cargo or to take on board further people. Many children in the tiny villages along the river were waving their hands and shouting SABAI-DII!! (Hello!).

Lining the Mekong in this area are mountains and jungle, jungle, jungle. The area is rarely populated and hardly cultivated - beautiful, untouched nature.

One of the bigger villages is our destination - Pak Beng. We arrived there with one other boat. The arrival was a happening in itself. Appox. 200 people trying to jump off the boat and climb up the steepy sand hill to the main road. Chaos and disorientation were ruling the scenery. Nice to watch ;-)

Pak Beng has been on the electricity grid for a couple of years now, although only for some hours at night. Thanks to the recommendation of some Canadians, we enlarged our travel group by Jon and Wayne - the two pillows we purchased second hand on the street. These proved to be very handy, as our trip back to Luang Prabang was on a boat with three rows of wooden benches. Again much more people fitted as we originally thought. The secret was to store the cargo including backpacks in the body of the boat. After another 10 hours of wooden benches we were ready and aching for a Lao massage.

The journey once again provided insights into the Lao culinary highlights. We refrain from further commenting this time.

For the rest of our holidays we stay in our favourite city Luang Prabang. This is our last post since we'll have to leave in two days. We hope you enjoyed doing this trip together with us! See you next time.