On This Day Somewhere Far Away

[Netsuke]

I was here on 16 February, ten years ago today! (Click on photo to enlarge)






I took an overnight trip down the Mekong on a Slowboat with Nagi of Mekong. Not the El Cheapo one which we were warned about on the Thai forum of the TT of LP!
Stayed overnight at Chiang Khai near the Thai/Laos border. Walked around the Main Street , not a lot to see, but I loved it. Not a tourist in sight! I remember my cabin looked out over the Mekong and I could see the other side which was Laos. I had Thai bbq for tea at the restaurant across the road.

The first photo was taken in Laos at a village we stopped at. The people were lovey and I was the only one who took photos. I remember as I went back to the point, other passengers especially the tall American from Chicago was annoyed because we had been told the villagers didn’t Ike their photo taken, so please, no photos. I just said, I spent time with the villagers, and asked could I take their photos please I had been playing with the children at the time, two young mothers shyly nodded yes. Each photo I took, I would show them to make sure they were happy. They were, and soon I had many people wanting me to take a picture. They were so happy to see themselves on the camera.

The second is Luang Prabang. This is where our boat arrived. We all needed help going up the river bank as they are steep. Local people carried our suitcases.

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[Baz Faz]

We too have done the trip down the Mekong on the Nagi. This must have been before you did it as in our case they tried to do it in one day. Hopeless. We were still about an hour out of Luang Prabang when total darkness meant the boat pulled into land and we all got off and struggled up the steep bank and stood around wondering what would happen. We waited for an hour before a truck arrived to take us into LP and tried to deliver us to our accommodation. In the end we just got down and found our way.

There were 2 Ozzie girls who kept swearing at the truck driver as if it was his fault. Not good. I thought about the journey for a couple of days then wrote to the Nagi company and suggested that trying to do the trip in a single day led to problems such as ours. They wrote back immediately (I mentioned I would be putting a report on TT which they may have taken to mean I was a LP writer) offering a full refund. When we got to Vientiane a Nagi employee arrived at our hotel and we got all our money back.

Those ill-mannered swearing Australian girls got nothing.

[Netsuke]

I was totally pissedoff! Unfortunately my guide was with me and wouldn’t let me up the damned stairs! Does anyone remember the Thai branch of TT? Captain Bob? Well my guide was the Captains wife’s brother, Pang and he was my personal guide and tour guide when I was in Chiang Mai. I actually got to see many things that the average tourist didn’t including some alternative gardening concepts.

This photo ten years ago.

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[Voy]

20 years ago I was in Wadi Hadramaut in Yemen ( the Wadi Doan - which leads there was the home of Osama bin Laden )