Up a major river

If there is such a thing as a busy day in Luang Prabang yesterday was it. First we took in the Royal museum, former home of the King and Queen of Laos until they were deposed by the 1975 Communist revolution. Never the less Luang Prabang remains quite a monarchist city and the current regime doesn't seem to mind. Afterwards we rented a private boat for a trip up the Mekong River, the destination was a cave 30km away but it was really the trip on the Mekong we did it for. This was a very different boat than we or I'd venture to say any of you reading this have ever been on.

It's the smaller one. Here's a closer look.

Once aboard our intrepid captain touched the black wire to the red one, not joking, and the engine fired up. The steering system was a rope wound a few wraps around a canister attached to the steering wheel which attached to wires running down both sides of the boat that were connected to the rudder. Turning the wheel pulled the wires right or left and the rudder moved. It was pretty rudimentary and it worked. There were no life jackets not even a bucket to bail with in case. But we did have a bucket of ice with water bottles in it so it doubled as a safety device. Benita was dubious of the whole thing but once we got underway we were committed and off we went up the Mekong River. 

The trip upstream was against the current and the river flows at a pretty good clip. From time the time our little boat was moving sideways in the current as the captain navigated the shoals, weeds and rocks that make it essential you have local knowledge if you plan to head out this river. Despite the look of the boat it was sound and the captain knew what he was doing. So we set in for the two hour trip up to the cave. 

We reached the cave and explored for a while then got back in the boat for the downstream return and a view of the river at sunset. 

The return trip took just over an hour because we had the current with us. While we were on the river I kept seeing in my mind different scenes from Apocalypse Now especially the one with the boys on the gunboat on the Mekong with Jumping jack Flash playing on the radio. 

We had dinner last night at the night market. The night market is an outdoor buffet of Laotian food. Chicken, whole Mekong river fish, water buffalo sausages, duck, pork, shrimp are all being bbq'd on open flames and the smell of the cooking meats and fish along with the wood being burnt is amazing. Then there is the assortment of noodle dishes, rice dishes, vegetable dishes, spring rolls and some more exotic offerings like snake, insects and buffalo skin. You grab a plate fill it with rice, noodles and veggies, choose a protein like chicken or fish then have it all cooked the way you like. Combine that with a beer and the bill comes to 20000 kip per person which is less than $6 for the two of us. 

We drag ourselves home after that feeling tired, full and pretty satisfied with the day. Who said there's nothing to do in Luang Pranang?