The boat rocks from my weight as I enter its cavern.     I perch on a wooden slat and rest my feet in a pool of cool stagnant water.     We drift from the shore; the engine rattling with the repetition of a trance beat.     The river invites us, calm and still and...

  Hundreds of years ago     the first body floated down the river in Vang Vieng.     When the opposition defeated Vientiane they captured the King     and sent him north to receive his sentence in the royal city of Luang Prabang.     But the King fell ill and when he...

  The heavenly kingdoms in the land of Laos were once ruled by powerful Gods.     As benevolent sovereigns these Gods would grant worthy partisans the ability to reign over the earthly world.     One day they sent the mortal son of one of the Gods to a small rice...

  Mist hangs over the hills that flank the Mekong.     Caribbean colored longtails blare their horns and travelers weighed by backpacks and bags of baguettes rush to the dock.     We drift down the mighty river that hypnotizes like a never-ending spiral.     Barely...