Boating down to Luang Prabang

Sorry to be so long in updating. I haven't been anywhere near internet in almost two weeks. Zander and I just arrived in Luang Prabang this afternoon. Four days ago, we bought a wooden fishing boat in Nong Khiaw, a little village about 120 km. upstream from here. The last four days we've been paddling down the Naam Ou and the Mekong River to Luang Prabang. It was an absolutely amazing trip. An American expat friend we made in Nong Khiaw helped us with the logistics, including a letter in Laotian to take to the village chief of the towns we stopped in. We had some amazing homestays as a result and Zander and I have both managed to pick up a little bit more Lao.

We spent about five days total in Nong Khiaw and another small town about one hour upstream by boat (there's no road there). The villages are surrounded by beautiful limestone karst cliffs and forests. We visited caves near both towns, including one that the Americans bombed heavily during the Vietnam War. We've been learning a lot about the Secret War, which happened parallel to the Vietnam War but remained highly confidential until recently. The American government actually dropped many more bombs on Laos than they did on Vietnam.

As for the boat ride, I wish I could go into more detail now but I'm way too tired. Suffice to say we began the journey with little more than pineapples, dried water buffalo meat, and a few plastic bottles of moonshine Laolao whiskey in the way of supplies, and we made it down here in one piece.