Nota Bene

ສະບາຍດີ folks!

Back to Laos – for a continuation of my tales (and pics) from the Luang Prabang side…

Curiously, the city is the country’s alternative capital (the government hopped back and forth between Vientiane and Luang Prabang several times), which is why traces of investment in urban infrastructure from days of yore remain here. And since back in those ancient times it wasn’t all about buses and subways, what they built were temples – some of which have survived through to today.

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Today’s post is all about the campsites we stayed at on our summer rafting trip down the Sayan Oka River, of which there are many and in different flavors, but which all turned out to be decent. Even though there was a pretty heavy stream of rafting tourists (every day we crossed paths with one, two, or three groups), and on top of that fishermen started showing up farther downstream (they come upriver in motorboats through some fairly rough riffles), we always found a nice little spot to spend the night.

Sometimes it was in a forest:

And very nice they were too:

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In Luang Prabang (Luang Phabang) in Laos, the Kuang Si Falls should be first on any visiting tourist’s itinerary! It’s an utterly unique-looking cascade of waterfalls and travertine terraces. Here’s the main waterfall (50+m high) ->

And the terraces farther downstream:

You can even swim:

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Hi folks!

Back to my habit of mixing things up both chronologically and geographically, today’s report isn’t from Southeast Asia (Laos); it’s from Buryatia – just north of Mongolia. Actually, Laos is directly south of Buryatia, but I digress…

First – quick recap…

Our Sayan Oka River escapade: ~280km to cover on the water, with a couple of rapids and countless very interesting riffles along the way. We started at the Buryatian village of Orlik, and from there it’s all the way down to Verkhneokinsky (Irkutsk Region). The elevation at the start is ~1370m, and at the finish it’s ~560m. That’s a total drop of ~800m. Along the way the river cuts through the Eastern Sayan, where it gets pretty wild in places. That stretch is roughly 170–180km long (depending on how you count it); the rest is the warm-up/run-up at the beginning, plus coming out onto the plain and floating down to the finish at the end. Everything in-between is in the mountains. The most interesting and most action-packed segment of the whole run is the Orkho-Bom gorge, which is 65km long – though I never did figure out exactly where it begins or ends.

The first two days of rafting were fairly calm: we just cruised along with the current – only occasionally paddling over to where it ran faster. And now and then we came across some shallows and easy little riffles.

But then we came to the start of the mountain section – waaay over there, just before those mountains, was the left turn into the gorge. And we’re off!…

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If you ever have the chance to choose exactly how to get, in daylight hours (ideally in the morning), from Vientiane, the capital of Laos, to Luang Prabang (which was the capital roughly half a millennium ago), then… well, first let me explain why I’ve started this post with that… incomplete conditional clause (oof)…

Now, Vientiane is home to the country’s main international airport (the one we flew into). But the really interesting tourist activities are in Luang Prabang, which is 200+km north of the capital. There are various ways of getting there: 1) taking the new Chinese railroad (two hours; lots of tunnels – 75, I just peeked – and you can’t see a thing in those); 2) bouncing along in a car for 300km, which takes some 10–12 hours (with stops); or 3) flying – merrily and with gusto – by helicopter, from airport to airport, in an hour-and-a-half (and in Luang Prabang the airport is within the city limits). So, back to my first rush-in sentence: if you ever do need to get from Vientiane to Luang Prabang – make sure you take the chopper option! Yes, it’s fastest, but also – the views along the way will simply knock your socks off!…

My dearly beloved wife was so thrilled that she even commented, “It’s like Kamchatka!” Well, that’s the highest possible accolade for the contemplativeness of the scenery around us )

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If you take a close look at the photos from our rafting trip down the Sayan Oka River – say, at the waterfall or the spot where we parked up – you may notice a few oddities on the surface of the landscapes that surrounded us there. Maybe not. Maybe it’s just me with this fixation!…

Aaanyway – what am I getting at?…

Just this: We were in a river valley amid a mountain massif. But the river itself is hemmed in between steep banks on both sides that are tall, steep, and unmistakably volcanic in origin:

Eh? How did that happen? Look: on the horizon – mountain peaks; the banks of the river – undeniably volcanic lava rock:

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The Sayan Oka River‘s raftable stretch is roughly 280 kilometers long! Yes – that’s one heck of a lot of jaw-dropping views and meditative-&-briefly-adrenalized R&R; there’s fishing too. Most of it is perfectly harmless fast-flowing water, interrupted only once (well, twice, but in the same place) by rapids; the rest is up to you…

You can get around the standing waves and “holes” in the riffles by staying away from the main current and hugging the bank on the right or left (if you don’t feel like taking a dip). But we preferred the “water park”, of course! ->

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Not sure why, but during this busy-busy… business-travel season, boat trips on Asia’s great rivers somehow keep dealing themselves into my hand. Yesterday I was telling you all about the amazing boat trip we took on the Pearl River at night; today I’m telling you about the contrasting impressions we got on the mighty Mekong near the town of Luang Prabang in Laos. The scenes on show there are no less colorful and no less contemplative – just in a very different way:

And a lot more down-to-earth here:

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A pretty intense workweek is now behind me. Now for some catch-up with my texts and photos (for blogposts such as this one) – and some sleep!

How wonderful it is to go for a ride on a nice ship across the seas and oceans. And even just cruising along the river in the beautiful city of Guangzhou is pretty wonderful too. Especially in the evening, after a hard day’s work, when the bridges over the Zhujiang River (which literally translates as “Pearl River”) and other tall buildings (including Canton Tower, which we went up the day before) get lit up and covered with all kinds of projected animations…

Yes, China sure knows how to surprise you with all manner of inventions and innovations, and when it comes to river light shows – it’s long been unrivaled. And not just in Guangzhou, either: I’ve been on nocturnal sightseeing rides in both Hong Kong and Tianjin – and both were just sumptuously splendid! I wonder where else could I go for experiences like these? But I digress. For now – let me tell you about evening river-rides in Guangzhou.

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The fall-2026 conference marathon is in full swing, and this is coming to you (not quite) live from our Russian++ partner conference in Guangzhou, China. It’s all as per: ~100 key partners representing 90+ companies from 30+ cities. Meetings, hugs, presentations, and technical and commercial sessions – all in a day’s work!

And here we are – all set to kick off:

A while later – full house!

As usual, I opened with a keynote:

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