Kayaking down the Mekong

Today was a great day. Me and a bunch of people decided to go kayaking. How often do you get a chance to kayak around the Mekong river!

We booked a kayaking trip so that we would have a guide that would take us to some great spots. We started of by going down some smaller rapids and through some of the channels created by the islands. In the end we ended up at a massive part of the river which connects with Cambodia. There we got a chance to see the rare Irrawaddy dolphins. Most of us were not expecting to see them, but there they were. What I was happy about was that the guides did not try to push us closer to them or disturb them in anyway. Instead our entire group kept a respectful distance and just watched the dolphins for a while. Nearby I could see 2 larger Laos motorboats ( longboats with a motor and propeller attached to them, nothing like the western motorboats) filled with tourists all trying to get closer to the dolphins. Of course every time the boats tried to get closer to them, the noise they made scared of the dolphins. Which in turn was lucky for us. We all stopped paddling and just floated for a while and eventually the dolphins came a lot closer to us.

After having watched the dolphins for some time, it was time for lunch. We crossed over the river and had lunch in Cambodia. Actually, it was an island which was on the Cambodian side of the river. Never the less, it was still Cambodia. So I spent the day in 2 countries today. After lunch we paddled up the river back into Laos and onto the shore where we got on a tuktuk style bus and made it to the widest waterfall in Southeast Asia. It was amazing! If you ever come to the 4000 islands this is one of the must see places.

From then on it was starting to get late, so we went a little further down the river got on to the kayaks again and went back to our own island. It was a fantastic day with fantastic views! :)