2015 - MEKONG RIVER in LAOS, aboard the Mekong Sun

Sun was just going down on the Mekong for the short ride from the hotel to the pier & the hotel supplied the ride.

First things first & the first thing is the lifeboat drill & meet the fellow passengers .. there are only about twenty, so it won't take long.

No hanging about as we push off up-river & see the river life of the local Laos & there animals.

The air quality is very bad on account of farmers burning to make space for crops.

Looks like a good thing we had the lifeboat drill .. this boat came to grief .. .

.. And another ..

There's our guide .. a young German fellow.

Coming up on a place we will stop at later .. Many Buddha images in a cave

Oops! Looks like someone is in someones bad books ..

Yes .. she gets a whack.

Here's where we park for the night ..

And the local youngsters coming out to see the tourists .. or maybe for a swim.

It is still early enough for us to go for a walk ..

.. it is good we do not have to carry anything like this girl

We climb the bank & head inland ..

Not too far & we reach our destination . . a visit to some working Elephants

And walk back through the small village to the boat . . being careful where we place our feet.

.. I said that we walked back but some folks took the easy route ..

The kids had grown bored with us & went for a moonlight swim.

The next day now & we are taking a small boat back across the river to the cave.

Quite a lot of steps up to the cave which is full of Buddha images

At the entrance to the cave . . high up on the wall & very hard to spot was this gecko

We left the cave & instead of walking back down the steps we trecked up-hill through a forest ..

and came upon this very small village

Kids at school ..

A nice little place ..

.. and so back to the boat ..

& head further up-stream.

the end of the second day on the river.