Sitting on a slowboat downstream Mengkong river brings contrasts to eye and mind. The nature is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen, probably because I love stoneformations. There are green hills with trees full of purple flowers.
On the riversides there are small villages or singel houses and it seems like all the families are washing sand for minerals or checking nets for fish. Laos is rich in minerals. The growing condition in this area are good and the hills provide fresh water. We also saw some logging, really tuff stuff, they are actually lifting the heavy logs from the boats to the truck, by manpower! But most of the families are very poor and it looks like the the world influences are mostly on the negative side with garbage in the river that destroy the fishing nets and will destroy the fish population. Medical help and schools are far away on bad roads or river road.
We really feel like getting to know the people. We spoke to a woman on the boat, she had lived in Luang Prabang and studied there, but moved back to the village to work with handcrafts and some teaching at primary school. Her kids has to move to Luang Prabang to live with they’re grandmother when they finish primary school, that’s about 3 hours boat ride from her village.
Skredderstua family adventures 