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Published: April 28th 2007
Slowboat
Here is the 2nd slowboat we took. Not as comfortable but we made do. It was definitely a thousand times better than the bus!
Zipping 1
James Crossing the Valley
Leaving The Treehouse ITAMAR: ... And then they all made laugh to me.
JAMES: They all made love to you?!
James photos are still not ready to be uploaded and we couldn't wait any longer. So here are some of my photos. They are not as good but the videos are awesome. So here it is, the long awaited Gibbons blog. To anyone who still cares to read it. LINDSAY
I have already told you about the slow boat back to Huay Xai but I have to say once again, for anyone reading this who may be in Laos and who might not have read the last entry... THE SLOW BOAT IS AWESOME! DO NOT TAKE THE BUS!
We checked in at the Gibbon office on the 25th when we got into town. There we found out that we were not the only ones who had trouble booking for the experience. We found Itamar from Israel who had been to Huay Xai before and had found out his booking was lost. He rebooked, traveled around, paid the Laos visa fee again and arrived on the 25th to find his booking had been lost again.
As
Our Spot
The seats were so bad on the second slowboat that we decided it was better to grab a spot on the floor. We had lots of space to spread out. the group was booked to capacity he was told he was out of luck. He was told he could wait to see if someone cancelled over the course of a few days. Huay Xai is not the kind of place you want to hang out in for any number of days,
Fourtunately, Nada, from Bosnia/Norway, came in to find that they had not taken her friend off the list, who had canceled weeks before. So Itamar took her place. While this trek is worth it when you get there, people should be warned that, for the moment at least, the reliability of the organization running it is less than stellar. Make sure you re-check your booking more than once, especially right before you make the long journey there.
Early in the morning on the 26th of April we dragged ourselves down to The Gibbon Experience office in Huay Xai. Having stuffed as much into our small packs as possible, we dropped our big bags off in the office and hoped we had everything we needed. It is hard to anticipate what you should leave behind, especially when the website is down and you have no guidelines to work
Laos Gas Station
The gas is in that blue barrel. from.
Our group consisted of 2 polish couples, Adam & Agnes and Robert & Eva, Itamar from Isreal and Nada from Bosnia/Norway. It was a good group of people. We took a long van ride out to the Bokeo Nature Reserve and got to know each other. Once there we pulled into a small village and started the first hike in. It did not seem so hard at first. The paths were flat and open, we collected our harnesses, but then we got into the hills. The trek soon became a steep up ad down climb that really got the heart pumping. Luckily it was not too sweltering hot, though this does not mean we didn't sweat and hyperventilate.
Before you reach the treehouses you come to the main kitchen. Here we met a baby bear who liked to nibble and bite. He just came and climbed on up into Nada's lap and started to nibble on her arms and legs. It didn't hurt until he started to get more excited and began to bite harder. Then she walked about randomly biting people and climbing on them. It was very cute. She felt like the soft side of
James Zipping In
Here is James coming to the end of a zip line at the Gibbon Experience. velcro. We were told that she was saved by nature reserve patrols who found her with poachers who had killed her mother. Another baby bear was kept a while ago by the people running the Gibbon Experience and we are told this bear left on it's own back into the forest.
At the kitchen we got a lesson on some of the things we needed to know while staying with the Gibbon Experience by a woman from the US who had been with the group since January. This was her second time with the program. I couldn't help but think of Roxann. Rox, I think you would love the idea of the work but, damn, the landscape is quite challenging at times.
We continued our hike and were all very happy to finally get to our first zip line. After a very short tutorial we each clipped on and started zipping! It was not as frightening as I thought it would be. I think this is in part because I was able to trust the equipment more than I thought I would. The harness and most of the harware involved are very similar to those used in wall
Treehouse
Here is a treehouse like the one we stayed in. They are about 150 feet above the ground and also well above most of the surrounding trees. climbing, which of course, Randy introduced me to at a young age (though not always to my liking - I remember a time by the river in which I thought I might die). I was paranoid that my hair would get caught in the device so that is why I wore a handkerchief on my head most of the time. I saw a video online once where this happened and it was not pretty.
The zipping was amazing. We had been told by the previous group that if we wanted to do more zipping we should skip the waterfall and ask to go back to the larger lines the next day. And so we asked for this, not knowing what we were getting ourselves into.
Anyway, we arrived at the treehouse, set our stuff down and did some zipping in and out of the treehouse. There is no way in or out of the treehouse that does not involve zipping. We went around and around until it was time for some food and relaxation.
The view from the treehouse was fantastic. You could see nothing but treetops and sky. It was the first time since the beach
Treehouse View
This is the view from the treehouse on the last day. It was quite foggy the final day and so had this kind of eery effect. at the beginning of the trip, that it felt like there were no other humans around. Asia has a much larger population than Canada, obviously, but I didn't know how much I appreciated the space until we came here. The concentration of people really starts to make me feel claustrophobic after a while. There was no feeling that way in the Bokeo Reserve. Miles and miles with hardly any people, and many meters above everything. It was very quiet.
There was a shower and washroom in the treehouse so everyone cleaned up and we had dinner zipped into us from the kitchen close by in the forest. While having supper I started to notice that my ankle was hurting and the pain got worse throughout the next hour or so. Eventually I could not move it without it hurting. I could not walk and it was a little swollen. I was worried that I would not be able to walk at all the next day. We put my foot up as high as we could, filled a water bag with the coldest water we could get and Agnes and Adam gave me some Polish remedy for swelling. By the
Jungle Trekking
On the second day we took a trek in an area that did not have paths. It was brutal. Here are James and Itamar struggling through debris. next day it was much better but when I moved certain ways it hurt. We decided I was good enough to go on the hike... But we had yet to understand that this was no ordinary hike.
This hike was more of a steep climb through jungle with no trails. The problem was that because we had chosen to go back to the bigger ziplines (and not the waterfall because the previous group told us it was not worth it) and therefore had to take a route not intended by our guides. This route was brutal, especially for one with an ankle in my condition. You would be climbing up hill side of a wet, muddy hill, almost on your hands and knees, grabbing at things that would fall away or had spikes on them and hoping you didn't fall down the hill. The "short" 1-2 hour hike turned into 2 &1/2 hours just to get back to a path, about half way to the other ziplines. This path, if taken the other way, takes 10 minutes to get to the treehouse... but only because there are ziplines in. There are no ziplines out.
After all that walking,
Lindsay's Day 2 Injuries
In addition to a twisted ankle from day one... these were the injuries from day two (she was also bleeding from the face from a tree branch). sweating, bleeding and such, I wanted to continue to our intended destination. So we trudged on only to find the path, though actually more of a path than previously experienced, was very steep. James and i decided it was best to turn around. It would be another 2 to 2 and 1/2 hours trek to the ziplines. We took a relaxed walk and a couple zipline rides back to the treehouse and had a nice afternoon shower. The woman in the kitchen brought us lunch, we had a nap, played some cards and eventually, sometime close to dark, the others arrived back.
They seemed to have had a long but good day over at the other ziplines and hanging out playing cards in the kitchen. We all got together and ate dinner and played cards until everyone collapsed from fatigue.
The next day was another early morning. We got up, packed up and ate, then off on the trail again. We only got one more zipline out of the treehouse and then back onto a path out. This trek was a lot easier as there was an actual path. The sky was cloudy and there was a nice
A Water Buffalo
We came across this guy while walking out of the National Protected area and back into the village. fog hanging around us. It was nice to have the sun hiding and a little rain as it kept it a little cooler for our walk out of the Reserve.
The one thing that was not cool about this trek was... THE LEECHES! These are much like the leeches we are used to at home. The little black worm-like things that suction onto your body and suck out your blood. Only these ones could not be avoided by by not stepping into the water... they lived on the land! We watched our feet and everyone else's on the trip out and had to stop many times for a "leech check". Poor Itamar with his sandles! We were told to rub Tiger Balm on our ankles and above our socks to keep them off. I don't know if this worked or not but we did it. I had my socks pulled up to my knees. Luckily, there were few of them that actually got holding on there long enough to start sticking.
Once we got out, we arrived back to where we started, in a small village. We were happy to find cold Coca Cola. We all rested a
Guide
Here is one of our guides carrying our lunch. It came every day in a stacked container like this accompanied by a large basket of sticky rice... breakfast, lunch and dinner. few minutes and then started a last card game before we were to be picked up.
James and I had bought some Lao childrens' books in Luang Prabang and had yet to find someone to give them to. We were happy to find that the village had a small library and so we asked the US woman to help us give them to the library. She ended up giving an inpromptu english alphabet lesson to some local adults, who in turn, gave her a Lao alphabet lesson.
It was nice to know someone might get some use out of them... Even if one of the books, "The Mouse Who Meditated", was kind of messed up. It involved some very graffic stories about animals deceiving one another and others vowing and following through on very horrible revenge schemes. I felt this one should come home with us instead of giving nightmares to young Lao children... but in the end, it now belongs to a library somewhere in Northern Laos, where children for many years can learn about how to get revenge on someone who wrongs them... Pluck out their eyes, let them wander around in pain and starvation for
Mud Slide
James took a slide down a muddy hill on our walk out. He had mud from his shoulders to his shoes and caked into this scrape. days and then lead them to their death off a cliff. Nice stuff.
We all piled into the back of the van again. This time I was feeling a motion-sick and Adam had a sinus infection. Adam had insisted that the windows be closed the whole way up to the Reserve. This time around, I needed them open or I was going to vomit on someone. So we opened one window and he put on a fleece pullover. I cannot believe he did not pass out from overheating.
We stopped for lunch, I walked around the highway instead trying to feel better. We got back in and went back to town. The Polish parted ways and we were left, the four of us: James and I, Nada and Itamar. We were all heading across the border to Thailand and so decided to go together. And so began our roundabout trek to Hanoi... through Thailand...
JAMES
Oh my god I'm so behind with this blogging!
We left Luang Prabang for Huay Xai via the slowboat. After our experiences on the Laos buses we were both hopeful, and skeptical of the slowboat option. We asked a lot
Relief and Exhaustion
There was much relief when we finally hit the village on the last day. While it was a good time, it was a long, humid trek with many leeches. of questions, demanded to see photographs of the boat, and even walked down to the dock to other slowboats. Our agent even promised to save us two of the four front, padded, comfortable seats if we booked with him…so we did.
We made the right choice! The slowboat is great. The scenery while cruising up the Mekong is gorgeous and changes from time to time as the different topographies roll on by. After 8 hours we stopped at a small town called Pakbeng where we found one Indian restaurant among a throng of Laos restaurants and had some of the best Indian food of my life.
It was back onto the boat first thing in the morning...only they'd switched boats on us! Those crafty devils. No more big comfy seats, time for hard, high, wooden benches. Lindsay and I decided to stake-out some of the prime, floor real-estate at the back of the boat and laid out our big beach mat. This was far better than the benches. I ended up talking to a Laotian man named Sompet for a few hours. He was sitting on the floor next to me reading a German textbook about agricultural, so I asked him about it, (it seemed rather unusual). He told me that he'd been sent to Germany by the Laos government to learn German, so he could return to Laos and teach German at the Vientiane university. So, after six years in Germany he returned to Laos and was told that a new German professor was no longer needed. Just like that. So now he works as a German tour guide and spends his free time researching alternate means of farming and alternate crops for the Laos people. He showed me pamphlets he'd made himself about the harmful effects of slash and burn farming and describing alternate methods. He was most excited about a plant called Mark Gnao (or Jatropha Curcas), which can be used to produce biodiesel. He told me that a processing plant was being built near Vientiane. This, he explained was very good news because a major economic hurdle in Laos' development was to find its own sources for fuel. Right now they have to import all their fuel and, being landlocked, this has to come through Thailand or Vietnam and is very expensive. Even better, the Mark Gnao plant grows into a tree and can be harvested year after year from the same field, unlike rice which requires the people to slash and burn a new field every year. He showed my the information packages he has made with his own money about the plant that he is distributing to farmers in hopes that they can diversify their crops and in doing so save some of Laos remaining rainforest from slash and burn devastation.
We arrived in Huay Xai around 5:30 p.m. and found the Gibbon Experience offices open! Moreover, they actually had our booking! They had us fill in some forms and we met Itamar, an Israeli traveler who'd been dicked around by the Gibbon Experience people even more than we had. He'd arrived to go on the Experience weeks earlier only to be told that they'd lost his booking and that he'd have to rebook for 10 days later, which just so happened to be our booking date. So he did this and left for ten unplanned-for days in Northern Thailand. Upon returning to the Gibbon office on the same day we arrived, he was told again that his second booking had been lost... The man at the Gibbon Experience told him to come back at 6 p.m. and that they'd try to figure something out to accommodate him - this was when we found him. Naturally he was rather displeased with the Gibbon people. It was only by chance that somebody else who had booked for our departure date sent a cancellation email, that Itamar actually got to come along. But the Gibbon office didn't realize this for a long time because they hadn't received this person's cancellation email. They only found out because the canceller's friend showed up to go on the excursion and told them of the cancellation. Unbelievable...and emblematic of nearly everything we experienced in Laos.
We awoke early the following morning for breakfast and were then whisked off northward to the Bokeo National Nature Reserve (or something like that). We sat in the covered back of a pick-up truck for over three hours and got to know (somewhat) our fellow travelers. There was of course, Itamar the 28 year old Israeli lawyer. There was Nada, a 19 year old Bosnian girl who'd grown up most of her life in Norway, and two couples of Poles in their thirties...(old people)...named Adam, Agnes, Robert and Eva. Adam and Eva are siblings...kinda creepy when you think about it. The poles were really tall. Both of the men towered of me and the woman were nearly as tall as I was.
Adam was very sick with a sinus infection and insisted on the windows in the back of the truck being closed even though it was well above thirty degrees. He wore a scarf around his neck and affected the posture of a malarial explorer who'd been found deep in the jungle and was now being whisked back to civilization in the nick of time to thwart off sure death.
The highlight of this journey was when we stopped to pick-up a Laotian man with an AK-47 machine gun. Even Itamar seemed a little put out by the machine gun standing up and bouncing about on the front seat as we rode on - and he fought in a couple of wars with the Israeli military. I was quite glad that Lindsay and I were sitting at the back of the truck - as far away as was possible from the front seat and the loaded machine gun.
We finally arrived in a small village just as the Experience's previous group were emerging from the jungle on their trek out. We got out of the truck and they got in. We were then given to a guide with very limited English, and began trekking into the jungle. A little ways in we were handed zipping harnesses and given over to two Laos men who would be our guides for the next three days. One of the men spoke nearly no English and the other spoke no English. Now, I should note here that I had made a point of asking what sort of foot wear would be appropriate for the hiking in the Reserve when I'd booked over the phone from Chiang Mai. I was told simply, no flip-flops. This didn't surprise me as I'd been on previous treks where the path was so beaten down that it was practically a sidewalk...and the Gibbon Experience having been operated for three years could easily have approached such a state. But...
After hiking a good ways through dense jungle on difficult trails, we began to experience the zips! Whoooo Hooooo!!! The best part about the first zip was that we'd not anticipated its coming. One minute we were hiking away, exhausted, panting, sweaty and tired and then... Hello! Time to clip that harness you've forgotten you're wearing onto this cable and bye-bye!
The experience of zipping 500 feet above the rain forest canopy is indescribable. We have movies we’ve made of our zips, but they don't do it justice. It is simply unlike anything else you will ever do in your life. Perhaps it is similar to skydiving... I don't know. But wow.
After many hours of this difficult hiking and more zipping we finally arrived at our tree house. It was a two story affair at the top of a huge fig tree. The only way in or out was to zip. There were two zip lines leading into the house and one leading out of it. Two of the lines made a circuit to the kitchen which was on a hillside next to the tree. You could zip down to the hill, walk up the hill a bit to the kitchen area where locals cooked for us, then walk up a bit more and zip back down into the tree house. If hustling you could make this circuit in 5 - 10 minutes as the zips weren't the longest we'd ridden by far. The zip line out of the tree house was a bit scarier than any we'd ridden before as there was no run up before the ground fell away beneath you. This time it was just hooking up and jumping out of the tree house We did a couple rounds for the fun of it and then settled into our new home. Robert and Adam did the circuit countless times. Adam sure was going hard for a man who'd been too sick for fresh air only hours earlier.
Dinner was very Laos. Our hosts would zip into the tree house with a five course meal and a big, metal kettle of boiling hot water. The food wasn’t terrible, but a lot of it sure was strange. We ate tons of rice. Any of the dishes that had meat in them tended to have very odd flavours that even our starving constitutions couldn’t reconcile consuming.
Lindsay was starting to have some ankle pain from an unfortunate jump she’d made off of one of the zip’s landing platforms, so while the others played cards and night fell, we reposed on our “mattress”. The Polish couples had some cooling cream for sprains and twists of the joints that they gave us to put on Lindsay’s ankle.
I awoke at around 6 a.m. the following morning to the sounds of the Gibbon monkeys calling to each other in the distant forest canopy. Our guides had described these sounds to us the day before and had done a good job at it - they were indeed unmistakable.
As we’d entered the forest the day before, the previous group were leaving and they we passed they kindly gave us their zipping gloves and advised to tell our guides on day two that we wanted to do more zipping, as otherwise we’d end up hiking our day away to look at a dry waterfall.
So, armed with this prime advice we told our guides to take us to the big zip lines. Our main guide told us that it would take an hour and a half to get to these zip lines. Lindsay and I debated whether we should go along or rest her ankle. As it was feeling better than the night before, we decided to give it a go and departed with our group after breakfast.
After zipping out of our hut we started our hike. We quickly came to a rocky stream and upon crossing it were faced with a near vertical climb of about thirty feet on wet, loose, crumbling soil, rocks, fallen branches, and slippery leaves. Nothing seemed a safe footing and there were many near falls on our way up. I couldn’t believe that we were doing this. No safety lines, hours from any serious medical attention and over a rocky stream bed. Frankly, I was a little pissed-off. This just wasn’t safe, at all.
Once at the top our guide reassured us all that the rest would be much easier than that particular climb. So, after some grumbling deliberation we marched on again. Though we didn’t come across anything quite as bad as that first climb, many stretches of our path came close. The route twisted like an epileptic snake. You had to choose between watching your footing, or your hand-holds - there were some trees you could grab to steady yourself on steep climbs or descents, and there were some trees with a bark that must have been the inspiration that led to razorwire. More than once while carefully dodging sharp stumps and loose rocks you’d spot a tree in your peripheral vision and reach out for it only to get jolted with the pain of ten or more needles being jabbed into your fingers. There were parts of the “trail” were you had little choice but to jump, dive, leap, or slide…and all of this on very uneven, wet ground lubricated by a covering of wet, fallen leaves. And have I mentioned the leaches? No?
Well, two and a half hours into our hour and a half hike Lindsay’s ankle could take no more. It wasn’t so much the pain and the difficulty in maintaining balance on one ankle that couldn’t take much weight. Hell, everyone else was having trouble with two good feet. Did I mention the footwear situation? We didn’t bring hiking boots. We should have. We asked. Anyway…
Stopping for a rest we asked our guide how much further we had to hike to arrive at our destination. He told us that it was maybe another hour or so. Realizing that time needed to be translated like language we gauged that this likely meant two or three hours. We had passed a zip line only ten minutes back, where one of our guides had zipped back to our tree house to get us all water, as we’d been told when leaving that morning not to bring any. That was great advice. We were all amazed to learn that after having hiked for over two hours that we’d arrived at the base of a zip line that could take us back to our treehouse in ten minutes! Why hadn’t we just used this zip line in reverse we asked. We could easily have hooked on and gone hand over hand up the line in twenty minutes at the most!
We debated as a group whether is was worth continuing. It was incredibly hot and about as humid as swimming. We’d been told one and a half hours at the outset and now two and a half hours later were being told that there was another hour to go. The Poles definitely wanted to continue, as did Nada…Itamar was debating. The tough decision fell to Lindsay who had to realistically decide whether or not she could continue. I urged turning back, as I knew that we had a long hike waiting for us the next day when we left the rain forest. While we discussed our options and tried to figure just what “another hour” likely meant, Adam, one of the Poles kept saying “well I think it’s worth it so, come on, let’s go”… and then thirty seconds later, “okay, are we going?” Wow was I ever ready to punch that knob in the throat. His wife kept looking at him like he was being a jerk and obviously reprimanding him in Polish, but to no avail. This was the same guy who made us all swelter in the back of the truck on our drive to the rainforest because he had “chills”.
Finally, though disappointed, Lindsay and I decided that since it was so easy to return to our treehouse from our present location, that we had to turn around, there was no way her ankle handle another couple of hours of this hiking, not to mention what would then be the return hike after the zip lines had been ridden. We split from the group and headed back. I really didn’t mind so much, but Lindsay felt very responsible for ruining my day. She didn’t believe my reassurances that I was feeling more than happy to turn back - and sure enough it turned out to be a good time nonetheless. We took our time and really enjoyed the two zips we had on our return, making two movies of each one with Lindsay’s new camera. First Lindsay would zip with the camera and take a movie while zipping, and then once she was ready at the other end she’d video me zipping to her. On the second zip we reversed the order.
For once our guide’s time estimate had been accurate. Even taking our time, it only took about 30 minutes to return to our treehouse. It was nice to have the place to ourselves. We showered and then I zipped to the kitchen to ask if there was some food we could have for lunch. The woman at the kitchen was shocked to learn that not everyone was returning for lunch! She was preparing a meal for eight and there was only two of us! I zipped back to the treehouse with a half-a-pineapple and she followed soon after with the feast she’d prepared for everyone. It was then that we realized that this woman cooking for us in the middle of the rainforest, and zipping to our treehouse with a five course meal in one hand and a boiling hot 4 liter kettle in the other, was pregnant! What had kept me from noticing before wasn’t that she wasn’t showing greatly, but just that she carried on in every way as though she weren’t pregnant and therefore simply didn’t look it - round belly or not. Lindsay and I ate from the feast and then had a nice nap in our breezy heights.
We awoke and played some cards before our compatriots returned from their hiking and zipping odyssey. Quickly we were told that we’d made the right decision in turning back when we did. As sure as we’d figured at the time, our guide’s estimate of another hour actually translated to another two and a half hours. In total they’d marched, climbed, skidded and jumped for over five hours to reach their destination, and then another two hours for the return journey.
Dinner arrived only moments after our friends did, so we all sat down and gorged ourselves on that and what was left of lunch, which was most of it. After dinner we decided to play cards. Itamar taught us a Japanese game, the name of which eludes me now. Our guides warned us of a coming storm before they left us, telling us that if there was lightening and strong winds that we’d have to abandon the treehouse and stay with them at the kitchen encampment. Hot damn that sounded exciting! Zipping in the pitch blackness in a storm! But, it never happened. Instead we played this card game into the wee hours (11pm?) whilst fighting to keep our candles lit in the growing winds. Eventually we tied two flashlights over the card table. I kept winning hand after hand, which was really annoying Adam, (who’d apparently won the previous night’s game when Lindsay and I sat out).
The morning was wet. We had breakfast and began our trek out of the forest. The path was much better then the previous day’s hike, but there were many more leeches due to the wet weather. As the baking noonday sun rose and burnt off the rain clouds we came out of the forest canopy and into fields blackened by fire by the locals. It’s an eerie landscape walking through a blackened, charred forest. All the night’s rain had swelled the rivers and the makeshift bamboo bridges were underwater in most places. I finally gave up the tight-rope act of crossing these streams on a single length of bamboo. For the last two I simply slogged through with Lindsay on my back.
Finally we came to the little village where the truck had dropped us off on day one. The truck hadn’t arrived yet with its’ of newbies so we hung about and indulged in Coca Cola’s from the town’s “store”. I remembered the Laos children’s books that Lindsay and I had purchased in Luang Prabang. We had planned on giving the books to our guides as gifts, but when I’d asked them on day one if any of them had kids they’d all responded that they didn’t. We were happy to find out that this little village at the gate of the National Sanctuary had a fledgling library for the locals. I presented the books to our guides and the village leader, who were all sitting on the porch of what was actually the library itself. They were thrilled. They passed the books around and leafed through them, pointing things out from each book to each other and laughing at the pictures. They assured us that the books would be well appreciated and used. It came as a bit of a relief. We’d somewhat worried that travelers had been arriving with these same ten books (bought as a package to give to poor villages), for the last three years of the Project’s existence.
We sat down on the grass together to play another round of cards while we waited for our transport when the village leader invited us to sit in the shade on the library’s porch. The villagers laid a mat out for us. No sooner had we sat down when our truck arrived and we passed our advice, Tiger Balm (to ward off the leeches), and zip gloves off to the new arrivals.
Adam suddenly appeared ill again and as he boarded the truck first began closing all the windows - seriously, it was at least 36 degrees. I couldn’t maintain an air of quiet courtesy any longer. “We’re not having any of this shit today”, I said as I got on the truck and reopened all the windows on our side. Adam seemed shocked by this and quickly said something to his wife in Polish. Agnes spoke the best English by far of their group and also seemed more aware of the group dynamic than her husband was. It seemed that she was telling him flatly to drop the subject. Then he looked at us all and explained “no, really, I am sick”. Everyone just stared blankly back at him without any signs of understanding what he was saying. He gave up and pouted.
Sadly, Lindsay became very car sick on our return journey. It was incredibly hot and stuffy in covered back of the truck even with half of the windows open - but Lindsay needed the fresh air circulating to stave off the nausea. About halfway back to Huay Xai Adam tried again to close all the windows, whereupon I informed him that he could do that if he wanted Lindsay to throw-up all over him. Agnes translated. He relented.
When we got back to Huay Xai we had a hustle ahead of us to get our packs from the Gibbon office, get through Laotian exit customs, get across the Mekong River to Thailand, go through Thai entry customs and find transport to Chiang Mai.
Itamar and Nada were both planning on going to Chiang Mai as well so we were pleased to find a great air-conditioned minivan deal to Chiang Mai leaving later that evening right from the Thai side of the Mekong River. We hadn’t thought that we’d actually be able to get to Chiang Mai that day and it sure beat the public bus option we’d been planning on (and didn’t involve having to get to the bus station from the border or transferring buses in Chiang Rai). After a slight repose and a bite to eat we got onto our minibus with some crazy looking Swedes and some consistently displeased looking Welsh boys, and headed out for a four hour drive south as night fell. Lindsay and I retreated into her Ipod (I’d given mine to Itamar to listen to) and we passed the time by my teaching her a drum beat that I’d learnt fifteen years before by listening repeatedly to The Pixies’ La La Love You. She nailed it in about thirty minutes. It had taken me weeks.
We didn’t roll into Chiang Mai until after midnight. Luckily the hotel the minivan dropped us off at was nice, central and reasonably priced. We agreed to meet Itamar the next morning for breakfast and indulged in our first real shower (i.e. not a freezing cold trickle), in days. God it felt good to be back in Chiang Mai - and a day sooner than we’d expected to boot! We were going to have a whole day to attack our massive gift shopping list before boarding our flights to Vietnam.
Our timing worked perfectly as the next day in Chiang Mai just happened to be a Sunday - the day of Chiang Mai’s massive weekend market. We transferred back to our usual Chiang Mai digs that day (the MiniCost hotel and guesthouse) and were thrilled to be presented with a massive suite for the price of our usual double-room. We moseyed and shopped and got caught up on our internet duties. Oh, those internet duties. It was here that Itamar injected his wisdom into my last blog entry.
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