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Jim Sullivan encounters life on one of the worlds most famous rivers, the mighty Mekong.
fter several days of heavy rain, the tumescent Mekong hurries south through Luang Prabang, known as LP, in Laos, urgent, charged with mission and purpose. Small skiffs sprint downstream at an unnatural gait while the cross-river boats are obliged to work acute angles against a current that the boats captain estimates at 4km/hr but is clearly faster, judging from the pace of vegetation moving over the surface. Were headed upriver, 35km from the Unesco-recognised temple town. The surrounding peaks shred the low cloud cover, opening breaks that promise better weather. There is so much fluctuation in the level of the famed Mekong River, that its waters claimed another 20 metres of bank during the night. Im travelling with Jean-matthieu Beroujon, assistant operations manager for Villa Maly, a former royal residence turned boutique hotel, and Kamu Lodge, and eco-hotel located up the river from LP. Also with us is Antoine Martin, another Frenchman who manages the Kamu Lodge. Antoine wears a bankers striped pants, flip flops and a ready smile under prominent eyebrows as thick as his lips. Were cruising upstream in the Nava Mekong, a 45m steel-hulled long boat decked in mahogany and teak. Mahogany in the floor and the teak on the roof. The teak is much lighter. The hills suggest abundant wildlife but here, near the rivers edge, the charismatic flora has fled for deeper sanctuaries. Four or five hours from the river, according to Moua Lee, a guide for Kamu Lodge, there are wild pigs and monkeys. The wild elephants endure near the Thai border, and in the south. There is still a tiger population, but its far from people. No one knows exactly.
Lee, who is of the indigenous Hmong tribe, talks to people from LP to Kamu, explaining all the way. He talks about the villages and the famed Pak Ou Caves. In rainy season, the locals harvest long beans and cucumbers, squash and Chinese cabbage, carrying the crops from their small fields on the steep flanks of the hills to little splinters of boats, and then on to market in LP. Antoine came to Laos on holiday, and liked it so much he decided to stay. Hed had a friend whod been here and stories from his friend were impetus for his own trip. His friend raved about the Lao people, and the different style of life. I had to try, he confesses. He lived two months with a Lao family who did not speak English, and quickly he acquired their language. He now also speaks English and Kamu. You have to like the quiet life if you stay at Kamu Lodge, said J-m. Hes brought a book to read at the Lodge. For years as a hotelier in other places, hed abandoned reading but at Kamu there is the desire to dig in again. At Ban Dan village, the Nava Mekong moors at the bank, and we climb a path that looks like reformed chocolate after melting. This is a Lao village of 300 people. We visit a Buddhist temple where an interior mural tells the story of good people and bad, of a mortal man who captures a heavenly woman and binds himself to her until she escapes. The mural was painted by a man from LP 20 years ago and has been touched up ever since. Next door to the temple, two villagers saw through wood by hand, laboring 40 minutes on each plank that will later go into the building of a boat. At first light the next morning, plans to bypass further villages change and I soon find myself on route to a Hmong Village.
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Turkish Airlines hopes to appeal to even more passengers travelling between Europe and Asia with the introduction of its innovative Comfort Class, a premium economy cabin like no other.
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