Chiang Rai Day 2 : Riding the Rapids

Having freed ourselves from the sand bar - we had to rush to our pick-up point which was another 30 minutes upstream. The boatman sped upriver - the stretch of which was becoming more shallow with frequent rapids to go over. He commented that if did not rain for another month, it would be impossible to provide this boat tour because the river would become too shallow.

Along the way we passed some local village folks fishing, some girls wading to cross the river and children having a great day swimming. There was also a raft boat of a group of tourists who rafted down the river and slept on the raft along the way.

We reached our pick-up point at around 1 pm - almost an hour or so beyond the original planned time. We were delayed at the Karen village when we took the one hour elephant ride and then when we got the boat stuck on the sand bar. The Le Meridien limousine and driver was waiting for us. We were given a cold towel to freshen up and a cold bottle of mineral water. From there we parted company with our boat man and carried on the next part of the tour on the limousine.

the top most picture was of a holiday 'raft'

and the picture above were of some girls wading across the river....
fishing in the river

these kids were happy to be photographed....

bye-bye to our boat man

and pleased to meet our limousine driver.....