South East Asia Adventure | Another day on the Mekong River

Life on the Mekong here in Luang Prabang is very different from what we experienced on the delta. The long boat takes us upriver; we appreciate the cool breeze, and the fresh air. The photos won't show much until I can edit them, but...

Those little specs on the water? Local fishermen re-use plastic water bottles as a buoy and connect it to fish line and a trap to snare catfish. The third world knows a lot about re-use and recycling of used material!

And those dots along the shore? Local farmers have lush gardens,organized in neatly planted raised beds, where they grow an abundance of produce to sell in local markets: rice, corn, banana trees (the fruit, flower and leaves are important in food here), mint, coriander, long beans, peanuts, morning glory (a delicious green vegetable served sauteed in garlic and oil), spinach, bamboo, chile, and watercress between the rice crops; dried seaweed is collected from the banks. I think these are sustainable farms.

Concrete channel markers are important because this is a main transportation route. Long boats (we are on one) are sometimes equipped for overnight trips and I think Ded told us that tourists go all the way to Thailand from here. I need a geography lesson! I think that would be to just beyond Vientiane, since it forms the border from then on. The closest bridges are 500 km to the north, and 400km to the south. Luang Prabang sits at the junction of the Khan River and the Mekong.

The Mekong near Luang Prabang

The level of the water changes hugely over the season—I don't remember the number of metres but it must make the river feel like a lake. If you look closely you can see a high water mark where the crops stop and the banana trees begin. It's hard to imagine the river at that height, but the flooding enriches the soil and helps to make this area a rich agricultural corridor. As we make our way up and down the river I estimate that it is a half kilometre wide, but at flood time, it must be much more than that. We struggle to orient ourselves, direction-wise. As we head north up the river, we are both sure that we must be going south—but as we reflect on the map we know that the river runs from China in the north to the delta in south Vietnam. I guess that's what guides are for!

There are many villages along the river, and each has its specialties. The village of Ban Xanghai has locally grown cotton goods, as well as distilled rice wiski (no, we aren't spelling that incorrectly). We watched the process of distilling which confirmed for us that this is no ordinary fermented wine! There was the nasty tasting wine we've tried before, but also a sweet pink one that I enjoyed, and a rum-like wine sweetened with sugar cane. Also this is where we saw snakes, serpents, bear paw and other strange creatures in bottles of wine. In the photo they are in bottles for sale, but elsewhere they were in big jugs, with taps, ready to be dispensed out as medicine! Another village, Ban Xang Khong specializes in making rice paper and also in silk textiles. They raise their own silk worms, spin the silk, and dye it with natural materials such as bark, marigold (an important colour in the Buddhist tradition), leaves, flowers and other plants, and then weave it into simple stripes or complex patterns (and sometimes both) for scarves, table runners, or just long pieces of fabric that can be used to make cushions, traditional Lao skirts and other wearable and decorative textile arts. We watched six women working their looms to create these wonderful patterns. An entrepreneur has organized this business and hires the local women to make the fabric. We parted with every dollar and kip we had, and then some, having to borrow from our guide to avoid the inevitable 3% credit card charge!

Weaving the fabric for our scarves and skirts.

Rice wine for sale in Ban Xanghai

Medicine dispensers. Those are bear paws!

We also visited the Pak Ou Caves. Each one is home to one or more large Buddhas, surrounded by thousands (thousands!) more. Worshipers have been making the pilgrimage to the Than Timg and Than Teum caves since they were discovered over 500 years ago. The Luang Prabang Buddha is a standing Buddha, perhaps symbolic of the working people here in Luang Prabang. But there are also sitting Buddhas (meditating Buddhas, Buddhas calling the earth to worship,Buddhas calling for peace or reasonableness) but I don't think I saw a reclining Buddha. No rest here! The villagers nearby the caves still worship here rather than in their local temple once day a week to acknowledge the significance of the site. Although early visitors looted extensively, there are still gold, silver, bronze, and other precious materials here, in the thousands of Buddhas left by visitors, as well as marigold bouquets and scarves left by worshippers. The most valuable artifacts are in the museum or have been taken to (or is that by?) other countries for safe-keeping.



Buddhas in the Pak Ou caves

There is no sign here of the busy-ness that characterized the delta. The current is strong, and there is rough water in a few places but mostly it's a smooth ride on the long boat.  It's quiet. We can hear our driver singing as he takes us up and down the river, waving and calling to his friends on one bank or the other as he follows the channel from side to side. We all agree he likes his work.