What a ride

(Written 25 January, 2007)
6 hours aboard a very overbooked slow boat cruising down the Mekong river put me in a peaceful state of mind despite the crowded conditions. Once I got off the boat though, it was a very different story. We arrived at the halfway point between Chiang Khong(Thailand) and Luang Prabang (Laos) as the sun was setting, only to be greeted ("swarmed" is probably a more accurate term) by about 50 guys trying to get us to stay at their guesthouses. While they are each scrabbling over each other to get your business ("Don't stay with him, they have crazy dog every room!"), 50 other guys are climbing back onto the boat you just came in on to grab the bags and bring them to the shore. "How nice", we thought, "they're bringing our bags over for us". I quickly found out that while we were all being distracted by everything happening around us ("You have guest house?", "Where you go?", "We have spaghetti!"), the porters are quietly walking up the hill and away from the boats. You see, if nobody stops them to claim their bag the guys just keep on walking, not stopping until they get home. It's nearly dark, and 300 clueless tourists are spinning around in circles trying to find their bags, secure a guesthouse (the night before, 150 tourists had to sleep outside on balconies because the town ran out of rooms), and make dinner plans with the friends they made on the boat ride. Good times!
I'm not sure how, but I wound up in a group with a lovely Danish couple (Anders and Edde), a Canadian/French guy, and a Israeli who I soon found out was an absolute penny pincher and rude to boot. Can you guess who I wound up sharing not only a room with, but in fact a slab of concrete posing as a bed too? I guess bartering is a part of daily life in Israel, but I wouldn't have imagined someone spending so much effort to hedge twenty cents off the price of his dinner. Oy vay!
It was all very worth it though, if not for the adventure alone than for the truly magnificent views down the Mekong river. Unbelievable. I'm actually looking forward to the 8 hour stretch tomorrow.