Today was the day we took the riverboat ride down the Mekong river. We booked a boat for 10:30AM, with a return scheduled for 2:30PM, this is the worst 4 hours in the day for photography if it’s sunny. It’s Luang Prabang in February, so of course it’s sunny.
The Mekong is a trans-boundary river in Southeast Asia. It is the world’s 12th-longest river and the 7th-longest in Asia. Its estimated length is 4,350 km (2,703 mi), and it drains an area of 795,000 km2(307,000 sq mi), discharging 457 km3 (110 cu mi) of water annually.
The tour had 2 scheduled stops, the first was at a “Whiskey Village”, a purported town that makes the national rice whiskey, lao lao. The second stop was at the Pak Ou Caves, which is two caves in the side of a mountain with lots of buddhas inside.
The return voyage back to Luang Prabang would be the time we’d get lunch service on the riverboat.
The first stop at the “whiskey village” was a 30 minute walk through lots of scarf and lao lao vendors, I didn’t see any evidence that lao lao was actually made in the village, but the people and sites were still worth the visit.
One of the things they do with lao lao is bottle it with insects or snakes, as you can see in the image below, these were bottled with “locally captured” scorpions. I couldn’t get any sort of answer to my query of whether or not the scorpions added to the whiskey or if it was just for tourist benefit. I suspect the latter.
Lao lao will definitely give you the desired effect if you want it to as it is claimed to be 50%-60% abv, but don’t expect it to go down quite as easy as a 25 year old Islay whisky.
The village was full of colour, as there were a lot of women weaving scarfs and other textiles. The cost of these souvenirs were about half as much as in Luang Prabang, but again we got the feeling some of it was for show and a lot of the goods were merely retail items manufactured in a less romantic way.
We did run into some young boys that would have made Rocky proud, as they were chasing and catching chickens with their hands. This was definitely some good entertainment for the tourists. they’d catch the chicken and wrap a leash around their leg. We think they were catching dinner.
We left the village after about 30 minutes and got back onto the boat for a trip to the Pak Ou Caves. Everything we read about the caves was true, there wasn’t much to see. I did appreciate the workout climbing the 260 stairs to the upper cave, but there wasn’t much to see. Everyone needed their smartphone flashlights or headlamps to get around the caves.
Again, after about 30 minutes, we boarded the boat and began the riverboat ride back to Luang Prabang. During our return trip we were served drinks and lunch.
I have a few rules when eating food abroad that I picked up from culinary school and unfortunate personal experience that I hope to never repeat. If food isn’t fridge cold, or stove/microwave hot, don’t eat it. Food served at room temperature can be a recipe for a long night.
We ate the seaweed chips and fruit tray, and skipped the rest of the food service. Thankfully the wine wasn’t half bad.
While it was nice to cruise down the Mekong River, it’s probably not something we need to do again. It might be a better experience earlier in the morning or in the evening when the light is a lot better.
Now it’s time to get Caellum to do some school work and Kumon.
I love Laos.
