Greetings from Laos! The Mekong River

I am now in Laos, a country bordered by Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, China and Vietnam. I travelled to northern Thailand and entered Laos at a town called Huay Xai. I had to buy a visa to enter Laos. Here is a picture of one of the border control offices.

Once in Laos I boarded a slow boat to sail south down the Mekong River. The Mekong River is the twelfth longest river in the world. Its source is found in Tibet and it then runs through China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. The Mekong is up to 14 kms wide in southern Laos.

The slow boats are very basic, made out of wood and with wooden benches to sit on.

Here are some slow boats moored at Huay Xai.

The picture below is of the inside of a slow boat.

I spent two days travelling on the slow boat and we sailed for around eight hours each day. There were lots of different types of boats on the Mekong.

These pictures are of the different boats I saw. This boat was being used to transport goods, such as food to the villages which are found along the river.

This is a "rocket boat" which has a very powerful engine to make it go really fast. People wear crash helmets when they ride on these because they are very dangerous. Each year people are killed travelling on these boats.

This picture shows slow boats moored close to a village. They are very long boats and can transport up to seventy people at a time.

This picture is of a house boat. Families live on these boats.

I saw many people washing, bathing and swimming in the river. Laos is one of the poorest countries in the world and the people have very little. Many Laos people have no bathrooms or washing machines so they use the river to do all their washing.

This picture shows some Laos people enjoying a bath. They will walk to the river from their villages, usually at dusk which is at about 6pm, and then wash themselves and their clothes.

The slow boat stopped at many villages and some of the people boarding the boat were carrying lizards. The lizards are a speciality in Laos and people spend a lot of money to eat them.

A lady was waiting with this lizard on a lead, for the slow boat.
When she got on the boat many tourists were shocked, but this is a normal sight for the Laos people.

I saw many beautiful mountains on my journey down the Mekong river. Here are some pictures of the views I was so lucky to see.

The Mekong river has at least 1200 different types of fish. Fishing is a very important part of life for the Laos people. They make money by selling fish. Also, fish is a very important part of their diet.

No other river in the world has as many large types of fish. One of the largest is the giant river carp which grows up to 1.5 metres long and weighs 70 kilograms!

The Mekong also has freshwater dolphins called Irrawaddy Dolphins and crocodiles, although these are becoming rare now. The river is facing many environmental problems mainly due to the building of dams. Three dams have been built on the river in China and another twelve are planned. The dams effect the natural environment of the river, for example the fish are getting smaller, the dolphins are getting rarer and the level of water is dropping which means that boats get stuck. This is worrying because the Mekong River is hugely important to the lives of many people, especially those in Laos.

After two days of sailing I arrived in the town of Luang Prabang. I had an amazing trip on the slow boat and I learnt lots of things.

I hope you have learnt some new things too and you may want to do some more research on the areas I have written about. Next week I will tell you all about the school children in Laos.

Lots of Love, from, Laos xxxxxxxxx