July 8,

We were up by 0630 and readied. We heard singing until 2140 last night, but it stopped then or was a break for  long enough for us to both get to sleep. Anyway, Jeff went and acquired our breakfast, while I had my Java. I had stir-fried chicken rice, Jeff had egg and veggie banh mi. We then packed up and checked out of our Phone Many Hotel. By 0830 we went to find our boat. It was there and it’s so much nicer!!! Jeff took back our luggage as I found a booth. Then I  just admired it. The interior was all done in wood, with five booths on both sides, flanked by wooden benches parallel to the windows. The seats weren’t as comfortable but you can change positions more readily to adjust.  

Everyone straggled on board the boat, and the boat cast off by 0920 for our day two and final day of the river tour. 

    Heading down the mighty Mekong! 

The river was still moving swiftly and still reminds us of Milo… thick, opaque and brown. It’s like the Chocolate River in Willy Wonka’s Movie!  We saw more fishing setups, more gold mining, and sand mining. We weren’t sure about the last two the mining ones, but researched and that was what he could find online. Seems crazy! It tears up the banks of the river, but Jeff said the environmentalists are only concerned about the sand mining part because it causes more issues due to the scale involved. We also saw a few trees new to us. They had red balls on their trunks. Is it a fruit? Questions!?!

One area along the cruise, the countryside was so green – it reminded me of Ireland. There’s an Irish guy on board – he said it was close! Anyway, we struck up a conversation with Al from Sydney, Australia – he’s closer to our age (48). We ended up talking with him most of the cruise off and on. We talked with a few others – mostly ones we’d met yesterday – as well. We had the booth to ourselves, but others sat to talk with us. Everyone seemed to move about and mingle more as the design of the boat allowed this. It was nice. 

At 1100, we pulled at a stop to let off locals. It was the boat’s second stop – with the total stops ending up being ten by the end. When we started back up… our boat side swiped two other boats before it made it into the swiftest current in the middle of the river! Our first stop was flawless, but it was the outlier. Every other stop today our boat at least bumped into the other boats to stop! Maybe these cruises should be called Bumper Boat Excursions!!! 😂 A couple of stops were to pick up empty beer bottles! Really, not a joke. Laos does not have a lot of road infrastructure, so the river along here is the way to transport goods. At one beer bottle stop there was not a dock and no boats to bump into, just sand on the shore. Our wake I noticed was causing “calving” of the sand bank. That was fascinating to me. But the best part of this stop – we saw kids making bubbles from breaking stems of plants and blowing on them. Never had we seen anything like it. That was the coolest stop!

At another stop, part of a local family that just boarded sat with us. It was bound to happen, but it was great! Three local women with a little girl of 2 yrs old joined our booth, crowding into only one third of the booth. I tried to get them to spread out, because we did not need that much room. But they just smiled and shook their heads no. One of the ladies did go to the booth across from us all – two men and two boys went elsewhere. We were just about to eat some snacks and pulled them out. We shared a few peanuts with the little girl, only after one lady (Grandmother, maybe?) okayed the gesture. The girl ate some, not quite sure of herself. An older boy (maybe 5)  joined us also as they all shared two bowls of Ramen. 

At 1500, the boat stopped again and the family that gave Jeff and I cucumber yesterday got off. I made sure to go and waved bye to them. The lady surprised me and said “Bye” back. I almost cried, it touched me. This stop was just before the first bridge, a railway one. Then lots of construction along both banks. Jeff looked it up; it’s a hydro power dam, being made. We passed by a cave temple, Pak Ou Cave. Now villages continually line the banks of the river Mekong. Around 1545, it started raining for the first time today – some tarps came down & curtains closed. Then it stopped after 25  minutes, and thankfully they went back up! It was steamy without the cross breeze. At 1625, the boat pulled over again, all the locals were getting off and some of the tour groups. Then the boat turned off its engines! So we all get off?? Nothing was announced and we don’t actually have a tour guide to direct us. Welcome to Luang Prabang!

So we got off and hired a tuk-tuk, a kind of vehicle with Al. We paid an exorbitant fare of $4.64 each for a five mile drive to our place. Al was charged the same fare and got off before us! Anyway, our place is a little, two story home. We unloaded and went for supper at 3 Thep Restaurant. We had Stir-fried Mixed Mushrooms with sticky rice, and Buffalo Ork Lam, which is a local specialty, like a stew. Both were a great finish to end our fantastic day.