Nice Quiet Day

Slept in a bit, then had a nice breakfast overlooking the Mekong river for 100 baht. The sun was high and the river full of action, across from my guesthouse is a docking area for small long boats carrying goods from Thailand to Laos. Many products available in Thailand are not available in Laos. I have seen everything from cabinets and piping to coke and cookies heading across the river to be sold in Laos.

After breakfast I carried the 4x5 down to Khune Tong's shack and photographed him in the shack, outside of the shack and standing in a nearby field. A friendly affable man Tong who I talked to using the polite forms of pee (older person) or Da (father) speaks a bit of English so I was able to learn quite a bit about his life and history. He has 2 sons who attended university one of whom is a architect in Bangkok.

After the photo session I went back to my room changed out the 4x5 film holders and then returned to the river for a trip down the Mekong with Khune Tong in his long fishing boat. He took me up and down both the Thai and Lao sides, the trip lasted about 1 hour and cost 400 baht ($14.00 CAD). I learned a bit about the river and as I passed people waved at me and smiled. Fishing is tough now on the Mekong, fish that were once plentiful have now been depleted as a result of over fishing. The most famous fish on the river is the Mekong catfish which can obtain sizes of 35 kilos or larger. One kilo of catfish will get the fisherman 250 baht. Khune Tong told me the largest catfish he caught this year was 15 kilos but that a friend of his had caught one of 20 kilos.

Am leaving Chiang Rai tomorrow and will return to Weaw's family home to pick her up, expect to spend one more night with her and her family. We will then travel via bus to Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai where I will leave her and go to Bangkok.

Going to try and get up early and make some photos in a temple before I leave. I want to photograph some monks if possible.