July 23,

I awoke at 0700, having slept all night long! Jeff said he awoke at 0600, having slept all night as well!! Yahoo!!! I did hear rain any little bit I woke when turning. Maybe the rain lulled us to sleep. But the main thing… no drums at 0400! The difference a mile makes in a city. Anyway, we got around and went down to our included breakfast. We were given a menu with several options. I had an omelet with onion, tomato, and chicken with a side of a partial baguette with my coffee. Jeff had two over-easy fried eggs with ham and sausage (hotdog) and also a partial baguette with his hot chocolate. We were both given a small plate of watermelon, dragon fruit, and pineapple as well. It was a lovely, filling breakfast.

A Laotian man staying here, mentioned to us that his family from Vientiane was supposed to have come on the train today, but it was canceled. We asked if it was due to the rain, but he said it was due to Typhoon Wipha that hit Vietnam. He also said that there are landslides, and the rivers are up. It’s still raining, alternating from light & misty to rain showers. But at least it’s not buckets… right now, anyway. We went back to our room and Jeff noticed a flood warning in Luang Prabang! When the rain had let up enough – around 1000 – we went out to see the Mekong River. We could see it seemed swollen, but wanted to get where we had walked a lot to compare.

We went to 3 Thep Restaurant. The Mekong River is quite swollen. We ordered a shake each- one mango and one pineapple, as we took in the whole situation! The staff recognized us and were sharing their amazement with us at the height of the water – even pointing to the picture from last year when the water had flooded higher up than where we were standing. I mean, there are boats anchored where the restaurant’s lower patio once was! A guy (owner?)had a tape measure out and measured down the side of the restaurant’s upper eating area to the bottom of patio(?) He said the water level was up 1.9 m (6 feet and 3 inches)!! We think the Mekong must be up 8-9 feet?!? We saw all kinds of debris- lots of whole trees, shrubbery, and even a table floating past. We finished our shakes, still in awe at the swell. We paid and walked over to the Nam Khan River and it is even higher up! There were flooded buildings along the shore line. The construction works that had been being done on the shores were under water completely!! It was a tall embankment, a road for construction equipment, and then another tall embankment. It is mostly all under water on our side!! We now know why Luang Prabang is under a flood advisory right now!! On this shore side, this river must be 20-25 feet higher! This was so crazy!

We stopped at a local convenience shop, getting couple of things. Then we walked back to our place, just in awe at Mother Nature, and figure the rain is probably still fall out from the typhoon. But we were pressing our luck, and went straight back. Once back we researched and checked out the stats: The Mekong is up 4.82m, which is 15 feet 10 inches!!!!! Absolutely and positively incredible! (We could not find stats on the Nam Khan River.) We were wrapping our heads around this. It is hard to image, but we saw it with own eyes, and that definitely makes it more real! No doubting Thomas’s here!

Around 1330 we went to lunch, going to a local place, Sokdee Restaurant. We shared French Fries and an order of Stir-fried Ginger with Chicken and rice – “little spicy”; and a small water. It was super excellent and zingy! It cost us 110,000 LAK ($5.12). Finished, we went back to our place, just as it started raining a bit harder. Later afternoon, there was break in the rain so we went out for a walkabout.

Back at our place, we ate some cheese and bread with red wine for snack supper. Then watched a movie. We went to bed with more rain.