We had another early morning and arrived at the Mekong River where we boarded a ‘slow boat’ and spent the next 8 hours sleeping, eating a delicious lunch provided by the family that owned the boat, playing cards and reading. We arrived at Pak Ngum which was a village on the river and G Adventures tours stay the night there. This way people can interact with locals and get a feeling of how they really live. There were about 50 families, each family with about 10 people and each group spoke a different dialect. They all spoke Lao when communicating with each other. We walked around the village and the guide spoke about their daily life. Kyle played a popular game which used a wicker ball and was a mixture between volleyball and football - he was quite good at it although some of the local boys had a giggle while watching. The children followed us around and we got lots of photos. Later we then gave them a biscuit and they ran off – their priorities were clear! We had a beautiful dinner cooked by locals (the curry was outstanding) and then Kyle decided to have a poor mans shower using the water in a bucket in the toilet. It rained and rained and rained all night – some of us had a small leak over our bed (bed being a thin 'mattress' on the ground), covered with a mosquito net. We were separated but in groups. It was a long night but I felt so privileged to see how the other side lived. We left early in the morning (5am) back on the boat wading through mud to get there. The day before Kyle had lost his Adidas slide (jandal) to the river which he was pretty gutted about.
While on the boat we saw some elephants bathing in the river which was an amazing experience. They had two owners on the side of the river watching them. We arrived late afternoon at the border to Thailand and we were very sad to say goodbye to Laos. Such a beautiful country. We also got a snippet of Sony speaking Catalan! This guy is a legend.
- Danielle