One step at a time…

…gently down the stream etc etc…

Life is not a dream..at least not on the slow boat from Chiang Khong to Luang Prabang (LP) in Laos. My reality was around me and have to say it was not an unpleasant one. It was a very long journey from the hills of Pai to LP…I had to stop over a night in Chiang Mai and then in Chiang Khong but finally I started my journey down the Mekong in a slow boat. One by one the boat filled out and of course there were more of “my kind” than locals on the boat. More americans concentrated in one place than I have ever seen before. Couple more familiar faces from Pai on the boat as well. It seemed the world was represented on the boat..Israel,Sweden, Australia,Denmark, South Africa, USA,UK, India (of course) and couple more that am sure I did’nt know about.

Map of Laos

The journey was very peaceful..a bit uncomfortable ( i had expected worse)..but more than anything it was absolutely beautiful. The mighty Mekong was laced on both sides with lush green virgin forests with a sprinkle of little fishing villages. The scenery was spectacular and of course all of us wannabe National Geographic photo journalists took out our cameras the minute we left the docking pier. If I had a SLR I might have finished couple of rolls within the next 30 mins. It was a kind of greed that made is want to lock the vision down and make it own…little did we realize that there was more to come. Folks started rationing their picture taking and we all relaxed and slowly just made a occasional Oh! and Ah! One of the things that I very uncomfortable with was folks taking their cameras out as soon as we stopped to pick up a local passenger on route. They would start taking pictures of the local kids, women etc. A kind of voyeurism…but if you look again it’s on both sides. The kids and the villagers too looked at us with the same interest..or maybe different but the need to peek in how ever momentarily was there on both sides. Should I feel guilty about this? Maybe not. I feel as if am contributing to the decline of innocence. Am I? We were here by choice and they were not.

We were all in too close of quarters not to have shared the 3 basic conversations starters…Where are you coming from? Where are you headed? and How much did you pay for the slow boat. It seems there is a floating rate for the trip and few paid more and few less than the others. It was not cheating but a kind of opportunist business ethic which seemed to have existed in this town (the Lao side of Chiang Kong…Huay Xai. I minded that but only for a few mins..especially after paying 80 bht for a bag for chips and some local candy. Given that I had paid 100Bht for a room this seemed a bit excessive.

Conversations lasted only for a few mins and I think one could barely bring up any serious topics. It was chit chat…the Israel Palestine issue as well as India/Kashmir came up but a mutual decision on both parties suggested nah..some other time. One of the Israeli guys was showing me pictures of Kashmir and I have to say I was very jealous…really wanna go there but…well.
If I hear one more Israeli raving about Kashmir I will not be responsible for my actions…I had enough in Pai from Omer.

The night stopover was in a small town turned tourist junction. You even could get massages and sauna. I treated my self to some really good Indian food with couple other gals. Roti and Aloo Ghobi never tasted better…a welcome change especially after 4 weeks of wonderful Thai food. Subriya, a tamilian running the restaurant had been in Laos for 4 years now and had been all over Lao. Had the man not been shy I would have asked him more questions…what brought him to Laos..why..when… but my companions asked me to leave the poor man alone. Which, I did.

I first impressions of LP seem to be a bit jaded. I should not have expected anything other than what I see. A charming old French city hugged by the Mekong on one side and meandering green hills on the other. The town is a UNESCO world heritage site and that stamp has bought many like me into town. Souvenir shops, internet cafe’s and the other usual tourist oriented places all seem to be here. But still there is a charm away from all this which awaits me..or am I just kidding myself. I knew when I was traveling that I will never me the only one in places like this but sometimes I feel I see more travelers than locals. I have been telling myself…Ah! common on Madhu be real and enjoy as much as you can.

While thinking about all this I was startled by two little boys who were trying to scare me with something in their hand. I pretended to be scared of course and joined the game..the onlooking parents gave a shy smile.. but looking closely I saw that they had the tiniest lizard in their hand. They were impressed that I was not scared but little did they know how much I was trying to keep my composure. Phew! that was close..but it was what I needed to jolt me out of my thoughts. I will savor moments like and will continue to travel down the beaten path ..intertwined with the touristy moments would be these impronto moments when all you need is a one smile to communicate a hello!, how are you? and good bye. I know I will treasure the smiles and kindness of these folks for years to come more than the temples and waterfalls that I see on my way.

Tags: Laos

This entry was posted on Friday, July 2nd, 2004 at 1:10 pm and is filed under Laos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.