Mekong River
initiative
NoorderSoft visits the Mekong River...
From China back in the direction of..... home!
Luang Prabang was the place where Peter had fallen ill
during our last stay, forcing us to head back for Thailand to avoid the risk of
needing medical care in a country where this is simply not available. Luang
Prabang was the place from where we had booked a flight to Bangkok, to make
sure we would be back there on time for our return flight home. So after having
turned the nose of our 4-wheel drive around, we began heading south-east again,
back through the mountains and to the junction at Pak Mong, where we continued
to follow Route 13 to the south, all the way to the point where we'd stopped in
January 2005. One night in Udomxai and a beautiful drive along the River Ou
(one of the longer tributaries of the Mekong) got us to Luang - and thus back
to Mekong River - early in the afternoon.
We spent a couple of lazy days in Luang to arrange the
last remaining matters before we'd go back: the car was collected by one of the
drivers of Asia Vehicle Rental, and we took a little pauze in the comfortable
Parasol Blanc Hotel, which we knew from 2005. We walked around and shot a lot
of photos at the shores of the Mekong, filming the many smaller and bigger
boats that lay here waiting for cargo or passengers. We scrolled the city and
climbed the temple hill (four hundred steps up, while the afternoon temperature
was back at 33 degrees: we began to long back to the winter temperatures of
Northern Laos!). What we also had in Luang, was THE BEST MEAL of our holidays,
in Apsara Restaurant, a specialized Lao food restaurant where we had Water
Buffalo Black Pudding, Spring Rolls and Fish stewed in lemon grass, garlic and
pepper, coriander and tamarind: an absolutely gorgeous meal!
The next morning a hotel taxi brought us
to Luang Airport, where we boarded a small plane to Bangkok. From the air, we
could cast our VERY LAST GLANCE at the target of our voyage: MEKONG RIVER. It
made us look back onto this voyage and our objective: to find out if something
(and what) could be done with our inland waterways expertise in the shipping
activities on the Mekong. After having followed the river and after visiting
many of its dozens of port and harbour towns, the conclusion we drew may seem
at bit strange: VERY LITTLE:
None of the Mekong navigation activities - maybe with
the exception of the maritime traffic downstream of Phnom Penh - is developed
to such an extent, that even a basic commodity like electric power is available
on board: if there is, it's the 12 volt DC from an old battery! There is NO
infrastructure ashore that uses any sophisticated kind of ICT technology -
apart from the Mekong River Commission itself, and they do definitely not need
our support, in view of the many millions of dollars they receive yearly from
the World Bank and other institutions. Shipping in the river is limited to
small draft vessels, most of them shorter then 20 meters or 40 at the most. The
boats that carry passengers - particularly those that transport foreign
tourists - are slightly better equipped than the others, but all of the
navigation is primitive, using very few technical means. Radar navigation - or
even VHF communication - are virtually non existent. The only beacons in the
river are the old maconnerie that the french built in the navigable channel in
much the same way as they marked the river Rhône in France (some of these
beacons and markers are still standing!). Even port facilities or harbour quays
do not exist: loading passengers AND cargo is done by means of simple boarding
planks laid on the side of the vessel and onto the shore. Passengers find their
own way aboard, cargo is carried by porters, taking the bags on their
shoulders.
Even the navigability of the river is doubtful in many
stretches: ships of fair (maritime) sizes get as far upstream as Phnom Penh,
but above this city the channel depth sinks to some two feet in some places
(except when the river is in flood: then a draught of 12 to 20 meters is
available in the river, supposing one would know exactly where the rocks and
obstacles are - which is not easy to establish in such a wide river without
markers!). At the Cambodian-Lao border, where waterfalls prevent any navigation
at all, the river level drops as much as 14 meters or more; here the only way
to allow shipping would be the construction of a 20 kilometer long bypass canal
with locks. In other words: our voyage was a TOTAL FAILURE as far as our
original objectives were concerned.....
It was a TOTAL success, though, when it comes down to
what the voyage did with our state of mind! We had one of the greatest trips we
ever had, through a beautiful en exciting region with friendly, interesting and
amazingly optimistic people whom everyone is BOUND to love after getting to
know them! We saw the most breathtaking landscapes, the most beautiful views
and the most stunning natural parks. We admired the mighty river throughout its
entire length and came to appreciate it even more in places where it doesn't
seem to offer much to anybody: there are ALWAYS the fishermen and the swimming
kids, there are ALWAYS the villages on the shores, and there are ALWAYS the
beautiful rapids where the river throws its water over the rocks and bolders
with which its course is covered. THANK YOU, Mekong river!
We arrived in Bangkok on the 30th of January. We had to
get used to the smell and noise of Bangkok again, after the air and silence of
the Mekong and Cambodia and Laos. We had a bit of good luck with the Bangkok
Tai Pan hotel (who overbooked, and therefore decided to let us have the JUNIOR
SUITE for the price of an ordinary room; the junior suite appeared to have a
bedroom, a dining room, a library, a sitting room, a bath room and TWO toilets;
makes you wonder what the SENIOR SUITE will be like - probably this covers the
two top floors of the hotel!). So we had another two comfortable days in
Bangkok, and a nice room-served breakfast on the last day of our trip. At
midnight on the first of February, we checked in at Don Muang International
Airport to fly to Amsterdam.....
On the morning of February 1st we landed at Schiphol
Airport.... freezing cold, of course. We picked up our dog, began to open the
mail, and contacted our staff who had replaced us to exchange whatever had gone
right and wrong while we were away. In other words: BACK TO WORK..... :-(
Amsterdam, February 4, 2006