Rusty's Great Adventures: Life Along the Mekong River

The Mekong River plays a vital role in Laos both in the past and today. There are many farms, villages, and fishing boats that support some 90 million people.

We started the day by taking our tuk tuks to the local Baan Xang Kong village. Here we learned about the process required to make beautiful paper from tree bark and the growing of silk worms for the production of fine woven silk items.

Mulberry paper is made by hand in the village. To make the paper they first have to soak the tree bark over night, then they boil it so that it becomes pliable. Next they separate the whitest strands for further cooking into a pulp to make the paper.

The bark is pounded into a pulp with one person pushing down on the foot paddle raising the heavy wooden hammer then letting it drop into the pile of pulp. A second person stirs the pulp for the next pounding.

This finely ground pulp is put into a screen frame in water.

Have to make sure the pulp is evenly spread out or you will have holes in the paper.

Next you add leaves and flower pedals to make your design.

The frame is then lifted out of the water to dry. Here is a sample of the finished product. Simply beautiful!

They also grow their own silk worms for the production of silk for the weaving of cloth.

Here are some worms in various stages of growth. The lower left hand basket has newly hatched eggs and the other 2 have worms about 2 weeks old ready to start the cocooning stage.

After they spin their cocoon the worms are removed and the silk strands are gathered for dying and making cloth.

Raw gathered silk strands.

After the strands have been boiled and ready to dye.

Silk yarn ready to be used.

Weavers hard at work.

Making envelopes by hand gluing the paper.

Stacks of paper.

There was a nice Temple located in this small village.

They were in the process of making a large drum to replace the cracked one in the tower. They hollow out the teak wood trunk then place leather covering over the end.

From the village we made our way down to the river to get aboard our boat for the cruise up the Mekong River.

The daily living lifestyle was easily observed as we made our way up the river.

There were numerous farms with terraced fields and a variety of crops.

There were livestock grazing along the bank.

Workers were out tending their crops.

Small homesteads dotted the landscape along the banks of the river.

Fishermen were out in their boats and along the banks.

Fish traps

There were transport boats and cargo boats.

A whiskey making station was a very interesting stop at a village on our cruise. They use the sticky rice to make both a wine (ferments for 1 week) and a whiskey ( ferments for 2 weeks). Had a crude operational still. What they would put into the whiskey when bottling it may surprise you. Look closely!

Yep! There were scorpions and snakes in the bottles. I sampled the wine and it was okay but the whiskey was a little too strong.

This small village had a really nice temple area.

Some kids playing in the village.

On up stream we saw an elephant working with timbers to be loaded on a cargo boat.

We went to the Pak Ou Cave where thousands of Buddha statues have been placed over the years by the Laos people. It started in the 1300's when the reigning king brought a Buddha back from India and placed it in the cave which had been used as a shrine to the river spirits. Over the years it has come to serve as a most revered holy pilgrimage site for the Laos people. The docking area was busy and we had to walk on a floating bamboo dock to reach shore.

On the way back downstream we had lunch on the boat.

Saw some monks washing down at the river on the way back. (sorry for the blurry picture but accidentally changed a setting on my camera)

This evening John took us into town for a "real deal" local experience. We went to a restaurant where a lot of the locals go to sample some genuine Laos cuisine. The first dish was duck wings and they were pretty tasty.

The next dish had 4 main ingredients: duck entrails (intestines, liver, heart, etc.), chicken broth, some greens, and a bowl of fresh duck blood. It is called Duck Blood Salad.