Thursday, March 06, 2003

Public Bus!

We got up at 6:45, and there was no water pressure, so we couldn't shower. Hate it when that happens!!!

WE had breakfast, then paid for our room, and had the guest house exchange a bunch of baht for kip. They gave us a better exchange rate than the currency exchange place! (BTW, Court is feeling better now, good enough to travel.)

We got a tuk-tuk to the northern bus station, which is about 6 km north of town. (10,000 kip each for the tuk-tuk there.) The bus station is nothing more than a dirt lot full of tuk-tuk's and large songtheaws (those trucks with seats and a roof in the back). All around the bus station are shops selling everything from water to clothes to shovels, and everything in between. Our bus (truck!) has 16 people on it, 4 falang, and the rest locals, and lots of cargo (bags of cement mix, food, boxes, a large cooler, 3 long plastic tubes, probably for water or sewer). We lucked out, no farm animals on this run (which does happen!) The bus, surprisingly, tried to leave at 9:00, the posted time. But it wouldn't start, so all the guys had to hop off the bus and push start the thing.

Off we go to Nong Khiaw. The four falang are sitting at the very back of the truck, and as we pass villages on the highway, children wave at us, and we wave back. About two hours into the bus ride, the bus stops in the middle of the road, and everyone hops out and runs into the bushes. Ahhh, pee break!!

I got the total best seat on the bus. I'm able to hang me feet over the rear door of the truck, and stretch my legs. Along the way, we picked up an old lady (local). The aged in Laos are typically so agile, it's unreal. This old lady hopped into and out of the bus like a child, it was unreal.

We got to Nong Khiaw about 12:30, then ate lunch, then bought boat tickets to Muang Ngoi, which is about an hour upstream.

We got in the boat, and waited and waited and waited, then we were told to move to another boat, and waited, then we moved to a third boat, and waited, then we had to move back to the second boat (by this time, the first boat we were in had left, and been replaced by another boat), and we still weren't leaving. At least 2 hours had passed at this point. Then another boat pulled up, and a local lady indicated to us that they had room for two people, so Courtney and I hopped on, beating out Shen and Mark and Nick (Nick was a third falang we met in Nong Khiaw, he's from Winnipeg). We finally left about 3:00.

It was a fun boat ride, we made friends with the locals on the boat, and gave out a bunch of our Canada pins, and let them listen to our discman's. We made a few stops along the way, and little by little, the locals hopped off at their villages, and it was only me and Court left, and the driver and his helper. AFter about an hour, made it to Muang Ngoi.

As we were walking up the river embankmen, there was a sign, dated March 2, 2003, that indicated that accomodation costs in the town were going up to 20,000 from 10,000 kip/night. Thought that was strange, but oh well, 20,000 kip is only $2US a night still. Muang Ngoi is a very small place, Court and I walked down the main street and took an attached bungalow hut for 20,000 kip. Our room was huge, and had two big double beds in it.

The scenery and mountains around Muang Ngoi are awesome. The mountains around here are very steep, and because of that (according to our book), a lot of the jungle has been spared the hack-and-slash burning by the locals, so a lot of it is pristine jungle, untouched for centuries. Lots of beaches along the Nam Ou river as well.

We had supper, and ran into Ren (Ren was that guy we hung out with in Luang Prabang). He was the only one left, everyone else he went up there with had left.

I'm also not feeling well, I tried to eat supper, but didn't have much of an appetite, and have been having lots of bowel movements (travellers diarrhea (sp?)). As I was eating supper, I had to all of a sudden grab a roll of toilet paper from the store in the restaurant and make a mad dash for the WC (water closet...toilet in western terms). I remember, as I rushed through the back room, the guy who took our order was standing back there buck naked, bathing himself. He looked at me and kind of grinned, but I was in too much of a hurry to apologize.

A little later, we met up with Shen and Mark, and Nick, and sat with them for a while while they had supper, then we had a campfire down by the river. We got home about 11:00.

Ren came by our room real late (midnight, maybe), making a big racket, he was coming by to say goodbye, he was taking off the next morning. Court got up and talked to him for a while, and told me the next day he was stoned and drunk. Haha.

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