I arrived in Luang Prabang pretty worn out from my trip to Cambodia and decided to take it easy for a few days — a vacation from my vacation. So I booked a long boat to take me north up the Mekong River to no place in particular. All I wanted was to watch the world drift by.
This colorful boat is actually a floating gas station, supplying fuel to the smaller blue bloat in the foreground.
We stopped at a cave notable for its 1,000 Buddha statues. Meh.
The monks were more interesting than the Buddhas.
We also docked at a village famous for its weaving and its moonshine.
The people there offered me a few free glasses of their local hooch, of which they are justifiably proud.
Then, once they had me slightly buzzed, they took me to some huts where women were busy at their looms making the most beautiful fabrics. The stratagem worked, and I bought cool silk and cotton pieces. Lao weaving looks almost unplaceable in terms of ethnicity and time, and yet is very distinctive.
On the back to Luang Prabang, I saw four elephants on the far the Mekong — a bad time not to have my long lens mounted. Instead I had to content myself with looking at the distant mountains.
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