The Mekong River in Laos

The agent on the Thailand side who assisted our groiup in getting  visas for Laos walked us down to the boat awaiting on the MeKong River.

Before boarding the boat to cross from the Thailand side of the Mekong to the Lao  side,  the agent gathered us in a cirle and said, " After you go to the customss building with the green roof, go directly to Miss Nu (at a certain hotel) she is waiting for you.  Don't talk to anyone or show any one your passport, they might be from the Lao Mafia."

Cruising down the MeKong River to Luang Prabang, Lao

With those encouraging words, we crossed over from Chaing Kong Thailand to Huay Xay, Lao, where  the Lao national flag flew  beside the red hammer and scycle flag, thus signifying the Peoples Democratic Republid of Lao (my first visit ever to a communist country).

We dutifully followed the agent's  directions, ultimately reporting to Miss Nu, who assigned us to our rooms at the hotel. Looking around us on th way to the hotel,  it was clear that we were in a country far less wealthy and developed than Thailand:  unpaved streets, few cars, simply dressed people - and yet there was a something uncomplicated  about the place and the people which made it very appealing.  Entering Laos was like going back in time to a simpler, less complicated era.  The next morning we were alll back on the Mekong  shore boarding the river boat for our next stop in Laos, the village of Pakbeng, where we would spend the night before going on to our final destination, the town of  Luang Prabang.  The boat was a shallow draught river launch about 250 feet long and ten feet wide, with wooden benches seating about 70 people.

As we began moving down the Mekong River for our seven hour trip to Pakbeng, I was fascinated by the ever changing beauty of the river - the rock formations on the jungly shores, the mountains in the backgrround and the thatched village roofs as the river snaked its way through heavily forested Laos.

Spending the night in Pak Beng,  we resumed our journey the next day, arriving in Luang Prabang that evening.

In my next blog, I will desribe Luang Prabang, a  former French colonial city currently  preserved as a world heritage site by the United Nations.