The mighty Mekong...

... and the not so mighty McGillivrays.

The Mekong was planted in my memory in the 60s, as it was often an area where the Vietnam war was fought, and so it appeared regularly on the BBC news. Later films about the war gave the river a mysterious, powerful quality.

So it's not surprising that we have been on or at the Mekong, several times in our travels. In Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. However, we never actually travelled any distance on it. Now, in northern Laos, that changes. Two whole days on the slow boat from Luang Prabang to the Thai border at Chiang Khong. We split the journey in two, with a stopover day in Pakbeng.

The river and its surrounding are just as I imagined they would be. Perfect for a Hollywood movie.

So we all had a great time?
Emphatically, no! But through no fault of the river and the lovely local people. The problem was, 5 of us had Influenza B, which is nasty at the best of times, but worse if you are European in the heat and humidity of Laos, and on two boats fir 17 hours. We know what we had because I took Lennox to the ER after he fainted, and they tested us for all sorts of viruses. Thankfully, we didn't have something with long-term impact like Dengue.Leggi altro