took the 'slow boat' from luang prabang back to houai xai. lovely scenery.
another slow boat on the mekong
this woman and her husband were on our boat and when they got off i was determined to get a picture. unfortunately, you cannot see her face, which was what was so amazing about her.
one of the few stops we made on the 8-hour boatride
my friend toon from belgium, who i took the boat trip with
i call this one 'laundry on a slow boat.'
'parking' can be a bit of a problem when these boats pull up to shore...
stayed at the friendly guest house, which had the sweet added touch of rose petals on the pillow.
...rose petals on some random cutout from a magazine. rose petals that had seen better days, at that...
OK, I know I'm a grammar nazi, but even *I'm* not this bad. Come on, Ed, get a life!
you can always find interesting things for sale when you walk through the streets of the villages...
The inclusion of the phone number is actually my favorite part.
spent a lovely afternoon walking around the less-traveled streets of the town (the main street is pretty much the only place tourists go, as houay xai is a border town and therefore not seen as anything more than a waystation.).
of course, satellite dishes are everpresent.
and again.
this was my favorite photo of the day.
the view from the roof of my guest house: the garbage on the roofs of the other houses.
ick, i know.
the view from the balcony is clearly nicer (that is thailand across the river).
light switch inside said balcony. i don't know...advertisement, i assume...
it took me a while to get that this meant that the red switch was hot water, not that here to the left of the arrow i would find red-hot water.
