Day 29 - MeKong river to Luang Prabang

First comment is thanks for all the concern given the sad and still developing news coming out of the earthquake today in SE Asia. The first we heard of it was the inquiries from friends and family and obviously we're OK, in fact we didn't feel anything. From what we've heard, it sounds bad in Myanmar but it did impact Bangkok where we were only a few days ago. We have made inquiries through our tour company to confirm that all the wonderful guides that have helped us on our trip are doing ok.

After our brief overnight stay at the Pakbeng Lodge, it was back down to the boat for Day 2 of our Mekong River cruise on our own little "Africa Queen". The day started refreshingly cool but soon heated up and the sky was extremely hazy all day due to smoke coming from areas of deforestation (planned burning) to create farmable land. Sadly, this impacted the views we would have had in this special place. It was still relaxing and overall, we had a welcome day of comfort.

We had a stop and visit with another hill tribe village, this time the Khumar people. Below in photo #1 you can what the village looked like from the river. It was a bit larger than the last one, housing 450 residents. This time we did not have greeters upon our arrival or the attempted sales of local crafts but there were still lots of happy and curious children following us along our tour around the village. The houses were made of wood, bamboo, cement and tin or whatever materials happen to be available. There was some electricity from solar power, and we saw one TV but there is probably only enough power for evening lights and they still cook on open fires inside the houses. Their farm animals including chickens, roosters, ducks and pigs happily roam freely around the village.

Most of the adults were not present as they were out farming in the mountains, but we ran into a few adults who were working on various crafts. In photo #1 a woman is making a bamboo roof (they need to be replaced every 3 years). Si, our guide, is demonstrating a homemade broom in photo #2 and in photo#3 is a man weaving a basket. Some of the women who have young children also stay in the village for supervision.

The basket and basket carrying technique (held over the forehead) is unique to the Khamur tribe.

One extra thought about the tribal people is that although they have little money and live a basic life, they do not seem to be hungry and seemed very happy. They are farmers both for vegetables and meat which together seem to provide what they need.

When we returned to the boat, we were greeted with a generous lunch buffet of pumpkin soup, chicken and vegetables, omelet and we were so excited to see french fries! For dessert we had fresh papaya. Our final stop was at Pak Ou cave that is filled with thousands of Buddhas. Si, who was a novice monk from age 8-18, educated us on a lot of the Buddhist customs and rules, including the prayer ritual held in front of the Buddha (see large photo below)

Here are just a few hazy shots of the scenery on the river as we made our way towards our next stop at Luang Prabang

Fun facts: There are various levels of Buddhist principles ranging from 5 for ordinary folk, 10 for novice monks and up to 227 for Head Monks or Abbotts. The basic five are

1. Don't kill (animals as well as humans - need others to kill animals for food)

2. Don't steal

3. No adultery

4. Should not lie

5. No alochol