Indochine Feb 19
by Bob_Thompson on Feb.21, 2010, under Indochine - Feb 10, 2010
It rained hard last night with plenty of thunder. I woke up a few times wondering if we’d have a long boat ride down the Nam Ou in the rain. Fortunately, it stopped by the time morning rolled around and it’s now simply cool and overcast.
At the moment we are on two small boats which are making surprisingly quick progress with the flow of the river. This morning we met at the usual time of 7:30 for breakfast. We had pancakes with bananas and syrup, toast and fruit. The pancakes were surprisingly good. We then packed and made our way to the waterfront. There was a Dutch couple looking for a lift down the river. We had met some guys last nite looking for the same thing. I like to help people out, but we have plenty of people already and adding more just makes things a lot less comfortable and, the bottom line is, you can make your way, it just means that you have to spend your own money to do it.
As I write this we are on the Nam Ou River. The water is moving faster than I expected and every now and then the driver is gunning the motor as we enter some shallow rapids. There are plenty of rocks and we come within 5 or 6 feet of some. If we hit one at this speed, I think we’d be in the drink pretty fast. I’m sure we could swim to shore, but I’m definitely thinking it would have been good to have some waterproof matches with. We’d need to get a fire going. If we do this again, I will have to remember to bring some. They’d be a lot more important the electronic gizmos I’m lugging around. There are a couple life preservers aboard for the seven of us.
We will visit a couple villages along the way. One will be our lunch stop. There is no road anywhere near here.
Loading onto small boats
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The source of all these posts
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Jeff T checking the scenery from Muong Khua
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