Welcome to our Travel Journal -- Round The World 2004-2005 travel blog

For the six of us on the trip -- this was my...

But this was our boat -- for eight passengers, no lifejackets, but...

This was another option -- but you don't see anything, you cannot...

A numberof these were available -- these are made at the riverside;...

Travelling with Jaelene.

Washing the clothes at the riverside.

We stopped at a village to give some gifts -- this was...

Lorraine had coloring books, crayons,balloons, and bubbles; they were tentative, at first.

Then Bruce showed them how to blow up a balloon, with limited...

Maybe this will work to generate some warmth,

A connection! No business cards, no introductions; we stopped, connected, and moved...

Beauty.

Beauties.

opening doors that we did not know were there.

Our boat is there somewhere -- waiting while we visited the cave.

There is a buddha; you can see the head of the naga;...

This was an awesome day on a spectacular river -- the Mekong.


Luang Prabangis at the confluence of Both of the rivers that come together at Luang Prabang are souces of food and entertainment.This day was arranged by Gerry O'Brien. In his usual low-key manner, he had arranged for us to go on a boat up the Mekong -- with the brother of one of the workers at the guest house.

Although we had seen the river many times, its depth and flow are very deceptive, because it is so brown. The river moves quite fast in places, and there are many rocks along the way.

The Mekong actually goes all the way down to Vientiane, and you can do the trip when the river has more water -- for about $23, and you can take a slow boat or a fast boat. There is also a boat to Chiang Rai in Thailand.

Before the Friendship Bridge was built, there were no bridges across the Mekong, and the river is still a significant barrier to transport along its route. On the other side from LP, there are villages where people do not have clothes, and villages where people wear bark and leaves for clothes. This is on the margin of civilization, in some ways.

The pictures speak for themselves. We had a marvellous opportunity to travel with these wonderful people, and to experience this beauty first hand.

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