I think I always imagine the Mekong delta in Viet Nam when I hear the Mekong river. I never thought about where the river came from. It originates in Tibet and flows through Laos to Viet Nam. Our last day we took a trip up the river to a cave and then had lunch on the boat

Our entertainment at our farewell dinner was pretty similar to most local shows with beautiful young girls doing traditional Laos dances.

As a final good bye we lit lanterns made out of rice paper and sent them off to the sky. I’m surprised all of Laos hasn’t been burnt to the ground by now

The morning started at 5AM with feeding the monks. Who knew that the monks have absolutely nothing and no way to buy anything, so everything is given to them by the local people (Buddhists) who voluntarily take care of them. So every morning, rain or shine, people cook up their sticky rice at home and bring it to the sidewalk and the monks walk by with everyone putting a spoonful of rice in their bucket. Lunches are brought by locals to the monastery and they have no dinner. So here I am doling it out

It should be noted Buddhists are very nice folks. Our guide was a novice for 6 years, now his is a married father but still many days gets up at 4AM cooks the sticky rice, goes out and spoons it out, goes home and has breakfast and then goes to the monastery to clear his head for the day. Very peaceful people.
Now on to the eating of the rat. We ventured to the country side visiting locals. On our first stop they had just barbecued a rat and offered it to us. Only one other, besides me, tried it. It was really quite delicious even though it looked terrible.

We then visited a family of eight that lived in a very small (understatement) house (understatement) The couple was 17 and 16 with their one month old baby. He was raised in this house.

On to the next adventure, lunch with a family that gave us a taste of their homemade hooch, which tasted like Scotch, but was marinated, or whatever you call it, with a snake, also had one with a large scorpion. I have to say, the group I’m traveling with is not cut out for this kind of stuff, they would starve and be very sober if deserted in Laos.

On to a beautiful waterfall to end the day

Flew, Laos Airlines, to Luang Probang this morning. Must say the Laos planes are far superior to the Mongolian Airlines fleet, but again we got there, so shouldn’t complain. This is where you want to go in Laos, in the countryside, beautiful landscape, and of course a lot of Buddhists. I may get Buddha’d out one of these days.

We travel by “tuk tuk” because the roads are too small for larger vehicles, no worry about seatbelts or safety issues, you’re just hanging out there. Our guide is really interesting, half the trip is learning how other people live and he provides so much of that. Yes there will be another beer photo soon, I have them but need to dole them out slowly.

Our hotel is on the Mekong River with a view to die for. Doesn’t get much better than this

I love standing next to reclining Buddhas, this is not the first and will probably not be the last.

We did do some serious touring through a site that is helping people still being blown up by cluster bombs we dropped on Laos in the Viet Nam war. Bombs are still going off in fields when children find them and think they are toys or farmers hit them. There are evidently many, many thousands of bombs still in the ground.

Now after that sobering thought we get on to embedding ourselves in Laos. Grasshoppers and crickets for appetizers. I was messy on removing the winds of my grasshopper but got better as I went along. The photo is of my wings and the cricket I was about to devour. Much better in dipping sauce.

Just like home, the guide took home the left over bugs in a doggy bag