Sailing past elephants on the banks of the Mekong River is just the start of a jumbo adventure in Laos Annabel Venning explores charming towns, villages and archaeological sites She crossed the 'Friendship Bridge' into Laos to take a boat down the Mekong 'Laos’s war-torn past belies the serene beauty of its landscapes,' she writes READ MORE: My life as a nudist - and the benefits of stripping off By Annabel Venning for the Daily Mail Published: 09:30, 14 June 2024 | Updated: 09:31, 14 June 2024 e-mail View comments Gliding gently down the broad Mekong River, we pass villages of bamboo houses, temples with gold-leaved roofs gleaming in the sunshine. We watch water buffalos wallowing in the shallows, and children splashing and waving at passenger boats. My friend and I arrived in northeast Thailand the night before and in the morning crossed the 'Friendship Bridge' into Laos to embark on a river boat down the Mekong.
Drifting past a tapestry of rural life on the riverbank proves an appropriate introduction to a country where 80 per cent of the population lives in the countryside. Late afternoon brings us to the village of Pakbeng, a charming jumble of guesthouses and hotels on the riverbank. On the other side is the Mekong Elephant Park.
Vibrant: On a tour of Laos, Annabel Venning stops off in the 'mellow' town of Nong Khiaw (pictured) A temple in Luang Prabang, a UNESCO city with French colonial influences Laos was known as Lan Xang - 'Land of a Million Elephants'. But there.