Upriver to Buddha Cave

Early morning sun 
glitters on fast moving water
the air is still
river banks rocky
feathery fronds of bamboo
sprout like green fountains.
teak plantations,
leafless and bare,
hills covered in thick undergrowth
of secondary forest,
fish traps,
palm trees
and occasional thatched stilt houses.

We went on a little boat with a noisy engine, up river, our captain steering the boat through channels between hidden rocks, one side of the river, then the other, between steep wooded banks, rocky peaks and layers of blue hills beyond. The Mekong is low. It's the dry season. As the river goes down, Lao people plant thin strips of crops on the exposed alluvial soil, right down to the water's edge.

Further upstream, steep rocky outcrops, sugared with fluffy green vegatation, rise, majestically on the edge of the river.

Steep steps lead to a cave with an impressive carved wooden entrance. All the way up the path village children sell painted shells and caged birds (for you to set free). Inside the cave there is a pantheon of miniature Buddha statues, some broken, some half eaten by woodworm, dusty and forlorn, on ledges, built up of bricks, in little natural alcoves. Deep inside the cave is a large lingam, decorated with nylon gold cloth, ribbons and the remains of melted candles.

More than four thousand Buddha sculptures, carved from wood, moulded from tree resin, coated with red and black lacquer or covered in gold leaf,. have been put in these caves by worshippers. A few are carved from animal horn or made of bronze or ceramic. Pious Buddhists have crafted these little Buddha statues to offer them in the cave.

My Mekong travels will be severely curtailed by low water and lack of boats. On sunday I am taking a boat up north, when Catherine leaves to fly back to Australia. But after that it will be busses all the way. There are no boats going south from Luang Prabang, nor indeed from Vientiane.  Ever since good roads were built the river traffic has dwindled. When the giant dams the Chinese are building are finished I fear the Mekong may be drained completely dry in the dry season.

The picture is actually of the Mekong in Thailand after the rainy season. It is much lower now.