Leaving Laos as we are half way through....

We are shortly to fly off to Cambodia from Luang Prabang on the day that marks the half way point in our travels. This is a great country full of gentle, warm people. I have been surprised at how cold it has been in the morning...we sit outside at breakfast with little wood burners under our tables. We are being told it is unseasonably cold at the moment, as the frost permeates from the mouth of the hotel staff. Once the morning mist is burnt off by the sun, the temperature rises quickly so by mid afternoon we are keen to be back at the hotel jumping in the pool.
Tessa and Jacqui have done a silk dyeing and weaving course while the lads have taken a boat up the Mekong to the Cave of 1000 buddhas with a stop off at a whiskey distilling village where the local poison is made. It burns all the way down to the intestines.
The Mekong is a fast flowing river in parts, with various sandbanks, small islands and rocky outcrops all ready to hole the ill prepared river captain. The river is alive with activity though, with moored long boats serving as petrol stations and large barges loading and unloading produce. Here and there are teak forests being felled for the timber and in this, the dry season, when the river level is low, the steep banks are cultivated virtually down to the water, with various crops.
The two caves which contain all different types of buddhas are being preserved with money from the Australian Government and a lot of the temples and other sites within Luang Prabang itself are supported by foreign money. Being landlocked, Laos is reliant on its neighbours. The Chinese have dammed the Mekong further up though the country is lucky that 70% of the water in the Mekong in Laos comes from large tributaries that rise in the jungle clad mountains. The people outside the towns are very poor and access to healthcare is minimal.
Buddhist monks loom large here in Luang Prabang given the number of temples here. Their colourful orange robes are seen all over town and down by the river, especially after school in the late afternoon.
As we sat having a drink at a café above the spot where the Nam Khan river flows into the Mekong as the sun set behind the mountains, we hoped that the serenity of this place will be preserved.