Border Crossing!

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It was an early start as we were heading to cross the Thai/Laos border by boat. As some of our group was hung over and Dean has started to get lazy and doesn’t want to become the bad guy, I definitely started to take it upon myself to start pushing people in the right direction. One person forgot to get stamped out of Thailand upon arrival on the Laos side. We still don’t know what he was doing for 30 minutes while everyone was waiting on line. He smiled and thought it was funny to go back to the other side of the river – I told everyone he had the shits. Anyhow, this was a pretty smooth process considering we have a few Forrest Gump types on our trip who like to drink a ton of alcohol.

We get on our boat which we were going to spend heaps of time on over the next 2 days. For me, this was heaven! It was beautiful views along the Mekong River. The sun was shining and I finished another book. The Laos food is so-so, but definitely filling as rice is the main staple. We arrived in Pakbeng before sundown as it is too dangerous for the boats in the dark as there are tons of huge boulders in the middle of the river. We were told 346,000 boys are going to show up and offer to carry our bags (we packed down for the boat – so we had daypacks). The cost is 20,000 Kip (around $2.50) for the boys to carry our bags to the guesthouse where we were staying. So 346,000 didn’t show up, but about 30 or so children and even some older men showed up to make some cash. Some of the kids were greedy as once they took one person’s bag; they tried getting more bags even though not everyone had a bag to carry yet.

Upon arrival, I met Charlotte and her web in my bathroom. She was super creepy. I tried hosing her down but she wouldn’t budge. Her web was so big; she fought me and shook off the water so I agreed that she can stay. On the other hand, the mosquitoes didn’t have a chance! Dinner with the group was nice. As some of the folks were drinking all day long, I think it was an early night for everyone especially as the walk through town is all of 5 minutes!

After sleeping in my sleep sheet, the roosters wake me up around 4:30am, 4:40am; 5:00am… couldn’t seem to get a brake! The day started back on the river around 7am. The boys who carried our bags were waiting patiently at the guesthouse to carry our bags back to the boat! They were so cute and eager. This time once my boy took my bag, I told him not to be greedy. I tried explaining to him not to grab anyone else’s bag until his friend’s all had bags. He definitely had no idea what I was saying, but he still had a huge smile on his face! One of the boys had a t-shirt that said ‘B is for Biatch’ – LOL. Of course the 9 year old got an American t-shirt (as many of the folks in South East Asia get old and recycled clothes from the states) – yet the inappropriate shirts don’t seem to get weeded out!

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