River views

Views from a 5.5-hour trip up and down the Mekong. What I didn't get was a picture of the most memorable sight. The Mekong is big and wide - at least 500 meters wide in most places, usually more - and brush and tree limbs always float by in the water. In the first hour, I see a tree limb that I think looks like a body. Then our boat gets closer and yes, it is a body. It's only about 10 feet away when we pass by, big, purple and bloated. And the boat's driver looks back with this look that says, "well, you don't see that every day." then he offers me a cigarette, which I gladly accept because nothing gets rid of the stench of corpses like a laotian cancer stick.