Taking a Slow Boat through the Mekong...
12th day (18th March 2008)
I can barely wake up, my body is in vacation mode, I can’t make myself get up from bed. I cannot even blame the weather coz its not even cold enough, the fan is still whirring overhead. I just want to burrow inside my comforter. God, my body is aching!!! I want to postpone my trip today!!! Am I just trying to drum up alibis to get away from my trip? Hey, wake up! You already paid thirty one dollars for the trip!
Okay, here we go…. I was really thinking that my group will be composed of oldies who wants to go cruising on the boat and check some villages on the way in a very leisurely pace but hey….. the oldie couple who were there told me they are going for a kayaking trip! What? As in talo ang powers ko!
I met some Noyps (well, I introduced myself to them) at Green Discovery as they are also going on a Waterfalls excursion pero ang laysho ng dating nila or was it the Tagalog language that was the barrier? Hehehe….ang hirap talaga ng Bisaya masyadong regionalistic, sorry po!
Malamig ang simoy ng hangin!!! I really got my wish --- to cruise around the Mekong River. We went on a slow boat to the “Paper Village”, they make paper and weave fabrics. They even make paper from the elephant dung!!!!
Next we are off to the “Whisky Village” to see them make “Laolao whisky”. The whisky making process is a tedious one --- they ferment the rice in a big clay jar (a.k.a. Banga!!!) for a few weeks, then they take off the rice bits and put the liquid into the pot and they boil it for ages. I think I had too much “taste test”, and it is really strong like gin or vodka. My head had started to spin a bit. Hmm, I better keep away from these bottles.
It’s nice going around on a boat. Being in the water calms me, I feel so serene, so at peace. The Mekong has been a huge part in the lives of the Lao, Thai, Khmer and the Vietnamese people. They live on it, they travel, they trade produce --- it is an essential and integral part of who they are and an (important) link in making them as one. Although it’s weird that it’s only the past decades that these countries are not fighting with each other!
Sigh, I wish this could go on…..sitting on a slow boat, with the mountains looming ahead, everything so tranquil….the vastness of the mountains and the quiet stillness of the Mekong, I feel so insignificant, so small amidst such splendor, the beauty of Nature. I take back all the drama I have about feeling bad about this trip…. I love it! This is the perfect last stop in my Mekong journey, a balm to a tired traveler’s soul.
Both the villages we visited were a disappointment coz it’s too “commercialized” for my taste, as in very touristy! It’s not authentic anymore, the originality of the designs are lost. All the products they have seemed to be mass produced and from the same supplier!
After lunch, we went over to the caves. Nothing much there anymore to see. It’s very unkempt for a place of worship. There are 2 caves, the Tim Tang and the Pac Ou (upper part) caves. Although it was a bit of a steep climb over a winding flight of stairs, I cannot rate it as hard-going at all. I had more difficulty in Chiang Mai last summer….. na halos mamatay-matay na ako at mawalan ng pahinga while trekking up through the forest.
Gosh, but it was so small inside……just a few hundred Buddha relics….. It’s really true what they say, once you have been to the Angkor temples everything else pales in comparison. Yeah, every time you look at a “wat” you feel as if it generates only 2 pictures each and nothing more.
We got back early to town. Just after 3pm so it’s Burlogs time…..
Surprise…surprise….on my way to Villa Santi to meet Joy, I met him at the edge of the Night Market and off we went to look for Sarah, the Rooms Manager na Pinay. I dragged him along to the Night Market coz I want to buy some souvenir t-shirts.
After dinner, we went to a pub (Lao-Lao Garden) and then my camera just went poofed! It died on me!!! Oh my God, there goes my Mekong trip! I was really panicking and I haven’t even taken a photo of the monks yet! Huhuhuu…… okay, let’s drink to forget! Beer Lao is really abnormal, it’s in a 645ml bottle and although it tastes mild, it can kick you dead! We were really hell-bent on getting drunk so even if the bar had closed we still carried over our drink, as in feeling ko tomador talaga…..I was walking the streets of LP with a bottle of Beer Lao in my hand and still drinking!!! We continued on to Sarah’s place and I managed to drink at least 2 more bottles as in, I’ve no idea how I was able to still walk to my guesthouse, at 3.30am and piss drunk!!!
I can barely wake up, my body is in vacation mode, I can’t make myself get up from bed. I cannot even blame the weather coz its not even cold enough, the fan is still whirring overhead. I just want to burrow inside my comforter. God, my body is aching!!! I want to postpone my trip today!!! Am I just trying to drum up alibis to get away from my trip? Hey, wake up! You already paid thirty one dollars for the trip!
Okay, here we go…. I was really thinking that my group will be composed of oldies who wants to go cruising on the boat and check some villages on the way in a very leisurely pace but hey….. the oldie couple who were there told me they are going for a kayaking trip! What? As in talo ang powers ko!
I met some Noyps (well, I introduced myself to them) at Green Discovery as they are also going on a Waterfalls excursion pero ang laysho ng dating nila or was it the Tagalog language that was the barrier? Hehehe….ang hirap talaga ng Bisaya masyadong regionalistic, sorry po!
Malamig ang simoy ng hangin!!! I really got my wish --- to cruise around the Mekong River. We went on a slow boat to the “Paper Village”, they make paper and weave fabrics. They even make paper from the elephant dung!!!!
Next we are off to the “Whisky Village” to see them make “Laolao whisky”. The whisky making process is a tedious one --- they ferment the rice in a big clay jar (a.k.a. Banga!!!) for a few weeks, then they take off the rice bits and put the liquid into the pot and they boil it for ages. I think I had too much “taste test”, and it is really strong like gin or vodka. My head had started to spin a bit. Hmm, I better keep away from these bottles.
It’s nice going around on a boat. Being in the water calms me, I feel so serene, so at peace. The Mekong has been a huge part in the lives of the Lao, Thai, Khmer and the Vietnamese people. They live on it, they travel, they trade produce --- it is an essential and integral part of who they are and an (important) link in making them as one. Although it’s weird that it’s only the past decades that these countries are not fighting with each other!
Sigh, I wish this could go on…..sitting on a slow boat, with the mountains looming ahead, everything so tranquil….the vastness of the mountains and the quiet stillness of the Mekong, I feel so insignificant, so small amidst such splendor, the beauty of Nature. I take back all the drama I have about feeling bad about this trip…. I love it! This is the perfect last stop in my Mekong journey, a balm to a tired traveler’s soul.
Both the villages we visited were a disappointment coz it’s too “commercialized” for my taste, as in very touristy! It’s not authentic anymore, the originality of the designs are lost. All the products they have seemed to be mass produced and from the same supplier!
After lunch, we went over to the caves. Nothing much there anymore to see. It’s very unkempt for a place of worship. There are 2 caves, the Tim Tang and the Pac Ou (upper part) caves. Although it was a bit of a steep climb over a winding flight of stairs, I cannot rate it as hard-going at all. I had more difficulty in Chiang Mai last summer….. na halos mamatay-matay na ako at mawalan ng pahinga while trekking up through the forest.
Gosh, but it was so small inside……just a few hundred Buddha relics….. It’s really true what they say, once you have been to the Angkor temples everything else pales in comparison. Yeah, every time you look at a “wat” you feel as if it generates only 2 pictures each and nothing more.
We got back early to town. Just after 3pm so it’s Burlogs time…..
Surprise…surprise….on my way to Villa Santi to meet Joy, I met him at the edge of the Night Market and off we went to look for Sarah, the Rooms Manager na Pinay. I dragged him along to the Night Market coz I want to buy some souvenir t-shirts.
After dinner, we went to a pub (Lao-Lao Garden) and then my camera just went poofed! It died on me!!! Oh my God, there goes my Mekong trip! I was really panicking and I haven’t even taken a photo of the monks yet! Huhuhuu…… okay, let’s drink to forget! Beer Lao is really abnormal, it’s in a 645ml bottle and although it tastes mild, it can kick you dead! We were really hell-bent on getting drunk so even if the bar had closed we still carried over our drink, as in feeling ko tomador talaga…..I was walking the streets of LP with a bottle of Beer Lao in my hand and still drinking!!! We continued on to Sarah’s place and I managed to drink at least 2 more bottles as in, I’ve no idea how I was able to still walk to my guesthouse, at 3.30am and piss drunk!!!
Comments
Ano yun? Sinundan nila ang elepante at sinalok ang mga ebs..yuck!