Slow boat down the Mekong

March and April are burning season in northern Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. Traditional farming practices clear land through fire, followed by a few years farming until the land no longer yields well, and then next area is cleared by fire. This practice also controls the risk of wildfires, and has other benefits I'm sure. However, it means that the air quality is atrocious in these regions, every spring. The Thai government is working to change burning practices, but I'm sure it will be a long effort.

In order to avoid this air pollution but still experience these northern areas, our travel patterns are a bit of a zig zag. Cambodia, north Thailand, north Lao, then south Thailand.

Another benefit of taking this approach was being able to follow the Mekong River south as we travelled from Thailand to Laos. The Mekong is SE Asia's Danube. It travels through China, Myanmar, Lao, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. It's influential in providing water and nutrients (through flooding) necessarily to grow rice in low lying areas near the river.

Early in the morning, we were driven to the Thai-Lao border. There's no e-visa for Laos, meaning that we and dozens of others waited for over 90 minutes to have our paperwork reviewed and visas prepared.

We chose a middle-of-the-road boat for our journey. The regular, and far less expensive, boats are crammed with passengers, with no space to move around for the 8 hour journey, and no noise protection from the extremely loud engine. The expensive boats have a bit more space to move around than we did. We were happy with our option.

On the first day, we were assigned seats at the back of the seating area, and even with a closed door to separate us from the engine, it was difficult to speak to one another without yelling. We asked to be shuffled to a new location for day two, and it was far more pleasant that day.

The Mekong is a busy river. Traditional villages rely on the river for washing dishes and their bodies, fishing for food and selling, and transport. Huge machines were dredging up the river bottom looking for gold, as were small groups of men using hand panning methods. Lots of boats moved to and fro with passengers and goods. And, this was just the part we saw over two days of travel.

We spent the night in a village where the economy is driven by one-night stays like ours. We also visited an incredible set of water-access-only caves filled with thousands of Buddahs.

The more than 4,000 sculptures of Buddha have been placed there by worshippers.

There are over 100 poses illustrating the life of the Buddha. Each hand gesture, or Mudra, and body position (standing, sitting, walking or reclining represents) represents a teaching.Читать далее