Unfortunately, our boat finally crapped out near the tourist trap of the Whiskey Village. These villages lining the Mekhong make a sort of bootleg whiskey, and the boats invariably stop there so you can sample the merchandise and see a typical Lao village. But unless every villager in a typical Lao village sells postcards and t shirts, the place gives off a strong sense of tourist trap.

I really did want to get to the caves. Each year for hundreds of years, the king would sail up the river from Luang Prabang, presumably in a boat that didn't break down, and dedicate Buddha images and shrines for the cave. Over the centuries, the caves have accumulated over 4,000 Buddha images, from thumb size to human size, lining the entirety of the cave walls. So, even though I said at the beginning of the Laos section that I would refreshingly be able to end this entry with a "never again" instead of my usual "I'll be back", maybe I will return to see the cave after all.

On our last day we took a longtail boat down the Mekhong to Pak Ou cave. There are a bunch of boats down by the river, and we unfortunately chose the wrong one for our trip as it broke down repeatedly and we had to abandon the trip eventually. But in the meantime, the river scenery was quite enjoyable. The mob in the water across the river was doing some sort of Songkran related picnic/group bathing thing that we couldn't figure out. And yes, that's Somchai piloting our boat.

I feel bad dumping on the place, so I'm going to quote Frommer's on the next part of our visit, the Mekhong. The river is pictured at right, and the shophouses on yet another paved road are on the street across from the river. To quote Mr. Frommer: "The Mekhong, lined with picturesque colonials, rolls through the very heart of the city and glows pink at sunset-not to be missed."

I think I'm going to stop experimenting with multipicture posts. My first attempt turned the text orange in the first Chiang Rai post. And I see that the last Chiang Mai post managed to fit all three pictures in by squeezing my sentences into two letter lines between pics, not really the aesthetic I was going for. We did some sightseeing around the Golden Triangle. Actually, our last trip before we left Thailand to move to Sydney was also to the Golden Triangle, staying at a great new resort, so I'll be brief here since the pics from the latest trip are much better. This is Mae Sai, a border town connected by bridge to the Burmese town of Tachilek, probably misspelled. Both towns are hectic, messy affairs dominated by the business of smuggling Thai and other imported goods into Burma. This is one of the few border crossings, crossing the Mekhong River. It's frequently closed due to border hostilities, but when it's open, it's very bustling.