Day 5

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Day 5
An early start today as we boarded our boat for a two slow lesuirlsy days along the River Mekong. The boat that was charted out just for us was perfect. Measuring about 2meters by 35meters it was loosely divided into four sections. There was a section with loungers for lazing in the sun, and then there was a section of bus seats that reclined, behind that was the dining area and behind that again was the family quarter.
Cruising all day long we made one stop to a remote village. Armed with my big camera I took photos of this 100population village. Walking up the mud track from the river we were greeted by two girls, both had dirty clothes on and the younger of the two only had a t-shirt on and nothing else. There were dogs and hens all around and gradually when word got out the foreigners were there, more children emerged. Gesturing at them if I could take their photo, I snapped away. But it was strange because they didn’t smile for the camera. Maybe it was just the case that no-one had taught them ‘smile for the camera, say cheese,’ because they didn’t have their photo taken too often. Although to my amazement they beamed from ear to ear when I turned the camera around so that they could see the photo that I had taken. The villagers lived in very basic houses made of bamboo and built over wooden stilts. There were only two rooms in the 6mx6m house, one for the parents and the other for everything else. There was no electricity here, but they did have water from one main tap that supplies the whole village. After wandering around and taking some photos we boarded our boat again. All of us thought it was strange to go to the village in the first place and like voyagers take photos of it, and we all left guilt money in a donation box. Turning the tables around having all these people land in my village and take photos of me and my house, would be strange. At the end of the day it good to see how other people live and though they have a very basic standard of living it doesn’t make them any less happy. I would even them they are happier than us, the iPod generation. Observing the three year old on our boat over the past two days makes me think that less is definite more. All he had to play with is a toy car and of course the free reign of the boat. He was happy just to occupy himself and very now and again sit up with his dad and drive the boat or to look in the mirror and sing the same song over and over again. Not once did I hear him cry or give out or moan or say ‘I want.’
Back on the boat we cruised for another two hours. We were fortunate enough to dock and sleep on solid ground for the night at a half way town called Pakbeng. We stayed at a clean guesthouse called Sivongsack. Pakbeng is really a small sleepy town and walking through the 1km town is like walking through a time warp 10years ago. The open shops sell TVs, lots of TVs. Now these are not the latest TV you’ll find like in your nearest high street, these TVs you’ll be more likely to find at an antiques market as they were box TVs with no remote controls. In the same shop they also sold mobile phones of every make, shape and size. I found all this technology really amusing since the town had no electricity! If you wanted to watch TV or to plug your phone in, then you had to power up the generator first. Even our guesthouse only had electricity from 6pm-10pm.
We had a nice dinner in the evening in a local restraint along the river. The sign outside advertised ‘my wife is a good cook’ and on the menu they had ‘fantastic spring rolls,’ and they really were fantastic.

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