This was an entire day of travel, which is always a little tough. It was nice to ride on the minibus and talk to people, and we made a few new friends. One was a couple of recently graduated Americans. They were from Seattle, but living in Southern California to go to school. They seemed to have all their planning together and had a good grasp on travel. The minibus was full of some other interesting people too. The front was loaded with some nice English folks that have been out for a year, and listening to their conversation taught me a bit. They left in Chiang Rai for a visit of 3 days. We continued to the border town of Chiang Khong. Supposedly, this was a tour with travel connections included and lodging provided. At any time we were expecting to get ripped off or have the next agent claim no knowledge of anything. We made a stop at the White Temple for a brief time. The guide mentioned to be back in 15 minutes, but some of us thought he said 50 minutes. This turned out to be a problem when our Chilean friend Leo was nowhere to be found when the minibus was heading out. At the same time it started to pour down rain. Our soon to be friend Thomas went running after him. He must have torn through the Wat in searching, but turned around and crossed Leo's path. At that exact moment, the people in the bus had clear view of Leo giving a Wei to the Temple and Thomas bringing him back to the bus. With the laughter that followed we knew we would have a great trip the rest of the way. Once the ice is broken in a situation like this the communication opens up and people will start sharing stories.
With the funny conversations, we lost track of time and the minibus soon arrived at the destination. Right outside the bus was another guide that greeted us with a smile and a Laotian laugh like Khan on
King of the Hill. We were directed to rooms in which to stay, and told that dinner would be ready at 6pm. Our new French friends, Thomas and Anne were in the room next door. This was where we had our first view of the Mekong River, and a beautiful sight it was. Huge and brown, with dense jungle on both sides. The river would be our highway to the Laos border in the morning, and from there, to the city of Luang Prabang.
One thing that we are sure to bring with us are earplugs, and this night they were surely needed. After dinner most of the group left while a small group of English and Irish kids stayed out on the patio. They were very young and very loud. A glass was broken and bottles were dropped. Thanks to my earplug induced coma, I did not know that they were yelling and singing until after 2am. When we woke up, I looked out the window to see the table where the party had taken place. There was a pile of trash and nothing was cleaned up. I was embarrassed for them, since this is a small family operation and the mess was left for the teenage girls to clean up. There are many types of travelers we run into, and these are some of the lowest. They have no regard for the country that they are visiting and are totally unaware of the poor foreigner image they are spreading. Good work guys! Hopefully Mom and Dad's dime will run out and you will have to go back home. Unfortunately, it doesn't usually work like that and you hear that they have been out for a year reinforcing stereotypes to the masses.
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