We had a short trip planned for the day so a few of us went on a bike ride in the morning. We had an exciting trip across the main highway with no traffic lights and total chaos. Then the ride calmed down as we pedaled out of town. We turned onto a dirt road and went through the rice paddies and several villages. I didn't start taking pictures until I could do so without getting a power line or a modern building in the frame. The road we were on was apparently a popular route for tourists to take by bike or motorcycle side-car. So the locals were out in force to try to sell junk to us. One woman followed us on a bicycle to try to sell us post cards every time we stopped. We saw another tourist couple completely surrounded in a motorcycle side-car by a mob of these marketers. I gave in once to a woman carrying her two daughters in baskets on either side of her traditional carrying bar. I paid her 2 Ywan to let me take her picture. Maryly Joe and Doug took her picture and she stared arguing with our tour guide that they each owed her 2 Ywan (around $0.25) each. At another scenic view of an aqueduct we paid one man for a photo opportunity and then watched him have a shouting match with another man over who should have gotten that money.
By noon we were back on the water and ready to drift downstream away from aggressive marketers. But first we had to get out of the harbor which was packed 4 deep in boats docked against each other in all directions. Our boat was trapped against the shore as far as we could tell. But a raft of tour boats rotated slightly, one of them motored out and suddenly there was a gap!
Three of us paddled kayaks out this gap but then while we waited for everyone else to follow the tour boats closed back up again. This is how I imagine paddling with icebergs would be like. Where there was a "lead" in the boats they closed ponderously together and we had to stay out of the way. Our friends were trapped again. While waiting, Maryly and I paddled across the river to look at the fleet of "sanpan" boats and photograph some cormorants. Finally the tour boatfleet opened up and the rest of the kayakers burst out and we hustled over to follow them downstream. Our support boat escaped soon afterwards and passed us by.
Every day they cooked us a wonderful lunch, the best meal of the day, in the open galley on the back of the support boat. On this day they did this quickly and pulled over into the shadow of a big karsk for lunch. It was a hot sunny day and it was pleasant to sit in the shade for lunch and a nap afterwards.
One section of the river had a lot of rocks in it and I found a path through them that was deep enough to be navigable. Ken went in the main channel and found one of those boat powered rip currents with large waves. Penny found some cormorant fishermen who let her take their picture without charging for it! Not everyone in this country is out to get $0.25 from us every time we turn around! Not that I mind paying for stuff but it gets tiring and embarrassing to have people chase you around everywhere shouting HELLO and insisting that you buy something.
Near the end of the day I noticed a small side channel with a lot of water going down it. Ken and Maryly followed me into it and soon everyone followed us. Unfortunately the channel ended at a damn with the water disappearing somewhere. I think I heard a hum through the water and think it was a small hydroelectric generating plant. Most of the kayakers headed back up the side channel and around. Jenning and I decided to try portaging across to the main channel. First I helped Jenning carry her boat over to the mucky green shallows on the other side. These turned out to be too shallow to paddle in, but had a hard gravel base to stand on under only a thin layer of algae. I went back and carried my boat across on my shoulder.
Only a few hundred meters farther down we followed the support boat into a small harbor behind a sand spit. This turned out to be Fuli and the end of our paddling day.
