Thursday, April 06, 2006

Laos

just spent a week back packing in laos. great fun. heaps of english speakers to make friends with.

we caught a slow boat from the Thai Loas border to Lang Probang. It was a 2 day trip and we were suppose to stop over night at a guest house on the side of the Mekong. The boat was about 2 metres wide and 40 metres long, all wooden and covered in colourful flacky paint. There were about 70 'falangs' and 15 or so locals. the seats were small and hard, but the scenery was stunning.

it's coming to the end of the dry season so the rivers are low, and at one point we ran aground. our boat came to a grinding halt and then tipped to the right (i was sitting on window sill on the left and prepared to launch myself out) everyone else spontaneously jumped to the left... and the boat tipped to the left - too far. so everyone spontaneously jumped to the right, and the boat tipped to the right - too far. a Lao woman at the back screamed something in Loa and everyone sat down. the boat righted itself and we continued on, hearts beating a little faster.

later that evening we stopped on the side of the river. there were rapids ahead and the river was too low to cross. we were all instructed to get out and walk a km or so down river. hopefully with out the weight of the passangers our boat would be able to pass though. so we trouped off and waited down river, looking expectantly up the rapids, waiting for our boat. it didn't come.

their was only one man on the boat who could speak both Lao and English and he was a buddist monk. He gathered everyone around. "We have a problem" he began. "Firstly i would just like to say that i am a passenger and this is my problem too." clever man. "The boat is not able to pass through. we must walk back to the boat and sleep on the side of the river."

hmmm...
no worries.

we walked back and set up camp. it was a beautiful warm night and there was some nice white soft sand to sleep on. we set up three camp fires and they even managed to find us some fried rice and drinking water from a nearby village. it was actually turning out to be a perfect night... and i wish that's where the story ended.

first we ignored the lightning, then we ignored the thunder (except the Laos, they all climbed back on the boat to get the best sleeping spots) we could not ignore the rain. each drop felt like half a cup of water.

and by 9pm we were all huddled back on the boat. it was cramped. it was damp. the floor was hard and not quite flat. it was completely pitch black.

not the best night sleep we ever had...

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