The Village

In between two eleven hour boat trips to get from Laos to Thailand we stopped off at a village near Pakbeng called Don Chaeng. This small village of only 500 people had only had 3 groups of tourists visit them before. As the boat arrived on the sandy bank of the Mekong River at the village groups of children hovered to catch a glimpse of us. They were so shy that even when you said Sabaidee (Hello) or waved they would just stare or get all giggly and excited. There were a few more confident ones who would wave and say hello back or ask some questions.

There is no guesthouses or hotels etc in the village so we stayed at the house of the chief of the village (the most educated man who completed primary school). As visitors men and women are not able to sleep in the same room (even if you are married) and so me and the girls stayed at the chiefs and Dave and the lads stayed a few houses away. As we ate dinner villagers gathered around and sat to watch us eat, we asked them to join us but they just blushed with embarrassment and continued to watch. We saw endless amounts of animals in the village from squealing pigs being dragged from one location to another to hens, roosters, chicks and ducks, to dogs and cats.