Bathing in the Mekong

The kids have been pestering me about going to Chai Hat (the beach) and as we are several hundred kilometers from the nearest sea I assumed they meant the Mekong River.

We stopped in the shade of trees at a Wat overlooking the Mekong, which even in a dry season with one of the severest droughts for years, must be a kilometer wide. At this point it is even wider due to a major tributary coming in from the Lao side of the river. On the far bank in Lao I could see houses along the river bank with beautiful large spreading trees.

We went down the 15 meters cliff to the beach which was a large sandbank with a large covered area giving shade with the usual collection of stalls selling food and drink. We ate a meal of Issan style sticky rice, delicious fish and papaya salad which I washed down with a bottle of beer.

We all had a great time messing about in tyre inner tubes and inflatable mattresses that you can hire for a few cents. Tipping each other up and splashing. The water was interesting warm for the first 10 cms but then quite cold and the current was very fast so you were quickly swept down the sandbank to the back eddy downstream where everybody accumulated in the slack water.

It was a great day.