We get our hotel to hire a boatman to take us up the Mekong for an afternoon. It's US$50. We leave at 10:30 when it's already getting hot but on the water it's quite comfortable in our 8 seater 'blue' boat, a glorified fishing boat with a sun shade - nails stick out, careful where you put your hands. Our boatman doesn't speak much English but we don't need a guide. It's a laconic, easy paced meander upriver for 2 hours. People go about their usual chores, tending the crops on the river bank, fishing, mending nets, a huge cargo area we pass is loading huge lumber from a truck, so there's obviously a road parallel to the river. Dotted here and there are poor looking wats, and a few monks strolling along the river bank.
We stop, clamber up the eroding bank and a rickety bamboo staircase to the "whisky" village where Mr Mou? has a still in what looks like an old oil drum. Whisky LaoLao will probably make you go blind if you drink any amount of it!! Ted tries a sip, "like slivovitz". But there are bottles for sale nicely covered in rattan, but also stuff that is definitely going to improve your health with snakes, scorpions, bees clearly floating in it! We politely decline.
The village is also home to some basic weavers. It's lunch time and there are no tour groups here, they came earlier or will come later. Many small shopkeepers offer all sorts of weaving, some simple, which they have done, and others obviously from China and India or somewhere else. They are keen to bargain but there is nothing I need or want.
Up the hill they have a Disney type temple, all glitz and glory.
I pay my 25c, 2000 kip, to use the toilet, it's a squat with a barrel of water and dipper. I manage OK. Wear shorts when you venture out far...
We stop, clamber up the eroding bank and a rickety bamboo staircase to the "whisky" village where Mr Mou? has a still in what looks like an old oil drum. Whisky LaoLao will probably make you go blind if you drink any amount of it!! Ted tries a sip, "like slivovitz". But there are bottles for sale nicely covered in rattan, but also stuff that is definitely going to improve your health with snakes, scorpions, bees clearly floating in it! We politely decline.
The village is also home to some basic weavers. It's lunch time and there are no tour groups here, they came earlier or will come later. Many small shopkeepers offer all sorts of weaving, some simple, which they have done, and others obviously from China and India or somewhere else. They are keen to bargain but there is nothing I need or want.
Up the hill they have a Disney type temple, all glitz and glory.
I pay my 25c, 2000 kip, to use the toilet, it's a squat with a barrel of water and dipper. I manage OK. Wear shorts when you venture out far...
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