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Published: August 4th 2012
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Vang Vieng, Laos...mud volleyball
Playing some mud volleyball with a bucket in hand. In November and December of 2008, I spent about 2 months backpacking across SE Asia. While I was in Vang Vieng, Laos, I decided to go tubing a couple of times b/c it seemed like such a blast and all I kept hearing about was the tubing experience from other travelers. Well, the 2nd day of my tubing experience turned out to be something that I think about on a daily basis, still to this day. I can easily tell you what a blast it was and how much fun I had at all the bucket bars and playing mud volleyball with everyone. However, it was also one of the scariest days/nights/mornings of my entire life. For anyone who has not been tubing along this river, there are small pickup trucks that locals use to transport the tourists from the river to their lodging and back and forth. At the end of the line/river, where the trucks pick you up, I got into a truck that looked just like any other truck that I had been seeing transport travelers. I can even remember there being about 3 or 4 other guys in the back of the truck with English accents. However, I didn't know anyone else in the truck because I had just been separated from the group of people that I had been with for the past several hours. After getting into the back of the truck, I can still recall the passenger of the truck handing us a bottle of whiskey and telling us to drink and have fun! Of course, no one thought twice about it, and so we all took a gulp and passed it to the person next to us. And THAT was the LAST thing I can remember before ending up on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, being forced out of the the back of the truck by the 2 local men that were driving it. They took my dry-bag, which contained my camera (with about 1,000 pictures, and the cash in the bag, which was only about $60 USD) By the time this was all taking place, the sun was already starting to set and when I say I was in the middle of nowhere, I mean NOWHERE. Just a small dirt road and thick, never ending jungle of each side of the road. I walked down this dirt road that was only about 5 or 6 feet wide for hours, with nothing but my swim trunks and flip-flops on and for some reason decided to continue carrying the intertube that I had rented that day. (And in November in Laos up in the mountains, it gets pretty chilly at night.) Finally after about 3 hours of walking, screaming, yelling, and crying out for anyone to possibly hear me, I realized it was not gonna happen this night. I happened to walk by and notice what appeared to be either an abandoned house or a house that someone started to build and never got around to finishing. In my mind, I thought, maybe I can go into this house and sleep for a while and whenever I wake up, it will be daylight again and surely some civilization had to be near there. Well, I can still remember that freezing cold floor, using the intertube as a pillow for my head, I laid down and actually happen to fall asleep for what seemed like a couple of hours before waking up to the hundreds of mosquito's that were covering my body and would not leave me alone. So finally, I just decided to get up and keep walking even though I could barely see 3 feet in front of me b/c it was so pitch black that night. I kept on screaming and yelling for someone to hear me as I walked, but all I got in return was the sound of insects, birds, and whatever else was moving around in the jungle that night. Well, eventually, after walking for several more hours, the sun was somewhat starting to come up. THANKFULLY!!! I could start to see what was out in front of me again!! And then once the sun was up, I was passed by local villagers on mopeds every so often. And every time they were in sight, I tried to get them to stop and take me back to Vang Veing, where my friends were and I needed to be. But they all looked at me like I was from another planet!! And it was obvious that some of them had never actually seen a person from outside their native Laos in their lifetime in person before. Well this went on for a while, but thankfully I was seeing life again, which I had almost considered to be long gone just a few hours before this. Luckily a man on a tuk-tuk type of thing stopped his ride after I jumped in front of him and didnt give him any other options. I tried to explain what happened to him, but he did not speak a word of English. But, I was able to communicate that I was staying in Vang Veing, which he understood and then pointed in the opposite direction that I had been walking all along. He agreed to give me a ride back to town after begging and pleading with him for several minutes. I dont know where I was, or have any idea where they had dropped me off the evening before, but it was no where close to town!!! It took quite a while to get back into town from where this guy picked me up!! Needless to say, I was pretty shaken up by this whole experience and was just about to call the trip quits and fly home, but somehow decided to give it another shot. This was about 2 weeks into my trip, and I ended up traveling for another 6 weeks or so after that, and so glad I did. Now, I am not trying to tell anyone to not go to Laos or any other country to travel. That is not my point of telling my experience at all. I still continue to travel solo every year, and I encourage it as well!! I just realize now how easily something could have happened to me out in that jungle, and NO ONE would have had any idea what to think or even the slightest clues at to where to start looking. NO ONE. Just always try to let someone, anyone know where you are going and who you are going with, when out of the country like this. At least if my friends or even anyone for that matter would have seen which truck I got in, they would have had some idea as to where and who to ask if I never turned up. AND, be VERY CAREFUL who gives you drinks, especially alcohol, b/c you never know if there is something else in it besides liquor or what their intentions might be.
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