The Mighty Mekong

Slow Boatin' down the Mekong
Nice Hat
Laos National Quarters Champion (in the slow boat engine room)
Coolest kid in the world
Legends
Like peas and carrots
MONKey-ing around on the river bank
Yo Quiero Pad Thai
Mekong Style
The last time I saw my sunglasses
US$1 in Lao currency

Met old Hobber's (Brett Hobb's- old fraternity friend of mine from Florida State) at the Bangkok airport last week. Stepped into the steaming hot Central Thialand afternoon to see what kind of hell we could raise in Southeast Asia.

We bummed around for a bit, had some Pad Thai from the street vendors and topped it all off with a classic Thai banana pancake. We didn't have long before catching a took-took to the train station to head North for Chaing Mai via the 12 hour night train. In celebration of Hobb's 19 hour flight, we thought it only neccessary to down a few local Leo beers on the long train up. Our attendent sniffed out the tourist opportunity and brought us an entire bucket of big beers on ice.

Flight stories, old fraternity stories, girl stories- beer. Old fraternity stories, girl stories- beer. Hopeful, maybe someday, Dear God girl stories- beer. We passed through miles of Thai jungle as the night grew long. The beds came down... and before I knew it I was waking up in Chaing Mai with a sweet hangover. I had sorted out our run to the Laos border before leaving Bangkok, so we had a driver waiting for us to take us to the tourist office that turned out to be little more help than giving us the opportunity to see a cat that was more hungover than ourselves.

From the time we sat down at the desk we heard of nothing but problems. Everybody in Bangkok said that we could get visas into Laos without a problem- tourist lady said that the express service takes 2 days and seeing that it was a friday and monday was an embassy holiday, it would take around 4-5 days to get them done. We gave in, cried away our sorrows at the dirty pool of the well A/C'd guesthouse they offered us for the next few days while our passports were flown down to Bangkok to be processed.

We had had enough after 1 day and demanded our passports be returned the following morning from Bangkok. They came in on the 8 AM flight as we decided to make the trek to the Laos border in hopes to find the "special guy" with all the right connections to get us into the country. This would soon be proved much easier than expected. After 5 hours on 2 different cramped buses we got to Chang Kong- the town that sits on the Mekong River dividing Thailand and Laos.

We check into our "room with a fan" and proceed to begin the battle of sorting out the visa situation. With chests puffed-out ready to rumble, we meet with the guesthouse personnel. One question later, we have Laos visas in hand ready for an 8 AM departure via slow boat down the Mekong River for 2 days into the heart of Laos.

As excited as we were to have visas in hand, the night was a long one sleeping on pillows that resembled leather Everlast punching bags. The kind that when you sleep on your back, your chin touches your chest- when you sleep on your side, your ears touch your shoulders. And Brett stole all the air from the fan. I'm still bitter.

Ladies and gentlemen.. the first GUEST BLOGGER will reveal where the story takes us from here. It's 7 in the morning and the silt filled Mekong is lined with "slow boats" (40 foot boats with a big Chevy motor planted in the back of them and world's most uncomfortable seats lining the interior) I turn you over to Brett Hobbs.....

Many of you may have been asking yourself questions about how and why Brad as been on the road for as long as he has been. Having spent a few days with him I think I may already be able to shed some light on the answers. As for 'why?' I think its that life outside the US has afforded him the oppurtunity to wear Tevas and drink cans of coke with a straw free of harassment. As for 'how?', last night our hotel bill came to 25,000 Kip...$2.50...not each, total, for both of us.

Picking up where Brad left off, with the fan. You would think that 4 months on the road would have turned Brad into a savvy traveler but when I came out of the shower Brad had quickly chosen a bed. 10 hours later I was relaxing in bed and Brad was recoverying from a heat stroke after I spent the night under the most powerful fan in Thailand while he sweated the evening out in the corner.

We got jerked around for a day in Chang Mai while we were trying to get our Laos Visas, but all things considered its not a bad town in which to spend an extra day and it gave Brad a chance to eat Phad Thai 6 more times. The next day we caught the slow boat down the Mekong River. I picked up 10 Red Bulls for $1.50 and a bottle of shmirnoff for $4.00 and we were on our way. 20 minutes into the 7 hour boat trip I noticed "the help" drinking beer in the engine room and we decided to head back and join them. In under an hour the RBV's (Red Bull & Vodka) were kicked and we were on to Beer Lao, Southeast Asia's finest. We determined the only thing to do with guys we shared no common language with was play quarters- a speechless drinking game. Little did we know we had stumbled upon the Lao National Quarters Champion. This guy was sinking shots like MJ all day. After spending what seemed like only 15 minutes in the engine room we pulled into port for the night after 7 hours.

We had a one night lay over in Pakang. I was starting to really miss the Seattle rain I have become accustomed to, so I was relieved when it began pouring as we exited the boat. Dinner consisted of good food ("Mixed Vegitables with Birds"), good people (some Irish, English, and Ne Zealanders), and good music (How Do I Rive by Reeann Rymes and the Fival Goes West soundtrack-all Thai rip-offs of the originals). I cleverly left the light in our room on during dinner and when we returned for bed it was clear the word had gotten out to every mosiquto, beetle, moth, praying mantis, etc. in town. Not the best thing to walk into right before bed but the 17 Beer Laos made spooning with Asian Gray Moths seem not so bad.

We wrapped up day two of our journey down the river yesterday, and spending so much time on the Mekong brought back a lot of great memories from our annual fraternity party that used bear the same name. For the Delts reading this, if we scale the actual Mekong River down to the old pledge-made Mekong River in the Delt House, I would say that over two days we traveled roughly from the Toshiba to the Pool Table. If we had had more time it would have been great to make it all the way to the Golden Tee (Saigon, Vietnam). Just like our old model river at the end of night, the Mekong is pretty brown, but unlike the old days I didn't see any Cubans named Albert eating live goldfish from it, or Midili running around with a pigs head.

Now we're living large in Laung Prabang, eating wild boar and drinking mango shakes awaiting the issuing of our Vietnam Visa. Plans are to go Kayaking tomorrow and maybe check out some caves. More reports to follow in the days to come...

-Mahalo