Mekong slow boat (by Joe)

The mighty Mekong: from source 4920m up on the Tibetan plateau it flows through China, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia to the delta and and the Vietnamese coast - a total distance of 4184km. It is Asia's third longest river (for my quizmaster brother-in-law, the Yangtse and the Yellow river are longer - but I'm sure my quizmaster brother-in-law already knows that).

We took a two-day 'slow boat' down a small section taking us from north to central Laos (see left - our boat, the one with the flag, moored up with others in the morning of the second day).

It was an interesting journey, passing impressive scenery slowly enough to take it all in (as well as to read many chapters of our books and chat extensively with various other travellers and get our diaries up to date and run down the battery on our iPod).

For such a significant river and one well-used by transport of various types, we saw surprisingly few settlements along the banks. Apart from Pakbeng, a small town where we stopped overnight, we saw only half a dozen small village settlements.

Occasionally, the captain would pull in and moor up briefly to take aboard some goods from the locals.

On the second day he stopped several times to attempt to buy various recently trapped exotic critters - we can only assume they would be the night's dinner for him and the crew (see right - a critter woman making a sales pitch - unsuccessful as it turned out).

When we did stop, villagers (especially the children) would rush down to the bank to stare at the tourists onboard. With no road access, we imagine these villagers have little interaction with outsiders other than these boat trips.

It was a good trip - and truly beautiful in places - especially as the rocks turned to limestone towards the end (see below). However, after some 15 hours aboard (on hard seats), we were happy enough to arrive at our destination: Louang Phabang (a comfy tourist hub).

Joe