Upstream on the Nagi

Today I'll travel 175 km (9 hours) from Luang Phrabang north in the Mekong River to Pakbeng. The Mekong is 4500 km long. The journey tomorrow will be only 145kn to Huayxay at the Thai border. Our guide's name is Kae (pronounced Cat) and is of the Hmong people in Lao. A prompt departure at 645am. In addition to Kae, there is a captain, another guy whose job is "to take over if the captain wants to go to the bathroom", the guide's younger brother (who supposedly wants to learn to be a guide), someone's sister, and her daughter and a baby that supposedly does not belong to any of these people. I kid you not! I could not make anything up as good as this. There are actually 46 seats- I think they were manufactured for small minivans! Breakfast arrives-
Minced Pork and crab steamed in banana leaf, Mekong fish soup, sticky rice and delicious Nescafé. The "meat" dish was very crunchy and tasted like anise. As licorice is not one of my favorite gouts and nor is cartilage (he entire crab is ground up), I dot not manage more than 2 small bites. The dish soup was delicious (not at all fishy tasting with a green vegetable that cooked like a cucumber on the inside and celery on the outside. Sticky rice in a traditional rattan basket with lid (I want to buy one and use as a handbag) which you pull out of the basket in clumps and eat with your fingers. The boat The Nagi - although no name on side that I can see) is
37 meters long and draws 1.5 meters, while the river max depth is 9 meters. After about an hour we stopped at the Pak Ou Caves- 2 linked caves crammed with thousands of gold lacquered Buddha statues of various sizes left by pilgrims. The scenery in general is a panorama of tranquil countryside. There appear to be periodic villages. The captain is definitely navigating. While there are some definite rocky outcrops in the river it is not obvious why we are not taking the most direct route.