the canal looking a very muddy brown this morning - iPhone + TiltShift + Instagram Hefe filter

When looking out the window this morning, the colour of the canal below was reminiscent of the Mekong River: a muddy brown that had me remembering various moments on the Mekong. One very funny one was years ago in Vietnam, where the boatman insisted on taking us to a bee farm despite our desperate mime act in an attempt to convey the following: severe allergy to bee stings resulting in anaphylactic shock and certain death on a tiny island in the Mekong Delta.

Well, obviously I survived, but we laugh about it to this day as we recall the boatman eating his free lunch (a freshly caught chicken whipped up into some tasty-looking dish), which was clearly his reward for bringing tourists to the island with the bee farm/honey store/restaurant, while we sucked on lychee nuts because there was nothing else for two non-meat eaters to eat. I do have photos of that boat ride, but they are all on film, so I’d have to dig them out and scan them.

Another favourite was stepping out from the Pak Ou caves in Laos (the famous “Buddha Caves” about 25km north of Luang Prabang by boat) and seeing this lovely scene:

looking down at the parked boats in Laos

And still another favourite moment was a late afternoon spent perched on a stool in front of a large open window watching the sun set a beautiful pink and gold on the Mekong River in Phnom Penh. I read a book and drank a cold beer and watched a man and his family push off in their small boat:

a fisherman and his family push off in their small boat

So, now, after writing this, I feel the urge to travel…

By the way, this is the usual colour of the canal in front of us: