Off The Boat And Into The Village

So after about an hour and a half chugging upriver on the boat we took a smaller, side branch of the river and pulled up at a small village. As soon as I climbed off the boat I was surrounded by children (who love seeing their pictures in the digital camera) and suspiciously eyed by the women who were working spreading rice to dry on the packed earth under the sun. We walked through the village, obviously heading somewhere but I couldn't figure out what the guide was saying.

We walked through the narrow path, past the cutest little mini-chickens to another courtyard where men were at work hitting rice stalks across a board and barrel to knock the rice off, the kids trailing along behind me the whole time. I thought, that's nice to see some more of the harvest work, then we went into a building and I was very ceremoniously led to the end of a short hall and a bathroom - I got it, this was the bathroom break part of the trip! I've had to use turkish toilets before in France but I didn't have to go (really). I went in anyway and washed my hands, waited around a couple minutes, came back out and thanked the waiting crowd.

We stopped by where the women were working on the way back out and the guide started talking to an ancient looking lady sitting on the ground. He said she was the oldest lady in the village. I asked if I could take her picture, so he got a photo of us with some kids. I got a picture with all the ladies and they giggled looking at the image on the digital screen. They were starting to look at me less suspiciously now and followed us down to the riverbank waving when we left. The kids ran along the bank following the boat as far back down the river as they could waving and yelling like crazy. It was the best part of the whole trip.