Stories from the road

Hurt yourself but not others!

Vang Vieng ended up being a good experience to me unlike some other people. On Thursday me and my roommate pleasantly tubed the whole distance designed to be tubed, which only about 3% tubers manage - most get drunk in the bars and tuktuk home. The story tells that meanwhile we were tubing, an unknown young man was extremely intoxicated and fooling around some girls in one of the riverside bars. Playfully, he picked up a girl who he didn't know, and was about to throw her into the river. A lot of people told him not to do it, but he thought it would be fun and threw her several meters down... onto sharp rocks as there was no water on that side of the platform. She was seriously injured and mediheli'd to a hospital in Thailand. He ran away as fast as he could, story says he was not caught. Tubing was closed for one day.

What goes around, comes around

In Chiang Rai I met a traveller who had been on the road for a long while and had a story I could not believe true, but here it goes! He had arrived in Manila, the Philippines and was having lunch by himself in a restaurant when a couple of local middle aged women approach him to join their table. They seem pleasant enough, so he joins in, and eventually ends up really enjoying their company and going along to a waterfall with them. However, the trip keeps getting longer and longer, and in the end he's spend six wonderful days with them and their families, sightseeing and trekking in the countryside. He gets back to Manila and to his hostel, and checks his bank balance to find out that he had lost 500$ every single day he had spent with them. The hostel manager asks him if he slept really well those nights, which he did, and provides the answer: his food was drugged with rohypnol and potentially a truth serum of some kind, a mixture that allows the lovely ladies to wake him up, ask him where his bankcard is and what the pin code is, and he would answer and then completely forget about it! And the stupidest part of it: his bank and insurance company refused refund him as he had given the pin code out himself.

So long story short, he ends up camping on a Malaysian island with only some tinned food as he's out of money, and a monsoon is nearing by and he has to get out of the jungle to find a proper shelter. He stumbles on a small holiday resort where the manager is just about to leave the island and he agrees to look after the resort when everyone else is away. A week later, the weather is better and a group of tourists arrive. He welcomes them to the resort he's kept clean and tidy, cooks food for them with available ingredients, serves beer, keeps them happy for a few days. The owner of the resort arrives, is surprised to find a guy running the place so well and who straightaway hands over all the money he's made selling beer and food! He's so shocked about someone making money for him and looking after his property so well, that he welcomes him to his family as a son and lets him stay and work until he's replenished his travel budget enough. When his dad came to travel with him in South Eastern Asia six months later, they visited the Malay family and everyone cried together out of happiness. The end.

My favourite Buddhist story

Two travelling monks are walking on the road. The come to a flooded crossing where a local woman stands, unable to cross. One of the monks picks up the woman and carries her across the flooded bit. The woman thanks him, and the monks carry on walking. The evening comes and the monks set up a camp. The other monk finally questions the monk who had carried the woman, saying "Why did you help that woman? You know were are monks, were are not allowed to touch women!" The questioned monk looks calm and answers: "Oh, you're still carrying her? I left her there at the crossing!"

Stories from local papers

I bought copies of Bangkok Post and Vientiane Times to see what's going on in the local politics. Sample of the biggest headlines from each of these publications:

Bangkok Post
Asean calls urgent border talks
Keep your talismans close, boys ("Army says troops need protection against Khmer black magic")
20,000 troops ready to head to the border
We 'want education' ("Kids urge speedy repairs to shelled school")

Vientiane Times
Finland to assist Lao digital mapping, database project
Vientiane ahead of ministry's educational goal
Better climate forecasts key to improving food security
Teachers of English learn innovative classroom techniques

Story of the future

So I'm in Vientiane now, and it has not been remarkably interesting. Slightly pricy, lots of French cafes, guesthouses all full of travellers, temples seem same as elsewhere. I've been on a bad mood recently; the reason for that remains to be undetermined but I think it has affected my perception of Vientiane. I enjoyed the absurd concrete statues of the Buddha Park, but the rest of the city has felt like a repetition of the same.

I will hopefully manage to book a bus for tomorrow to go to south - maybe directly to the 4000 Islands (in the Mekong), or maybe I will stop on the way to see a nondisputed World Heritage Site temple. The longer term plans currently contain a visit back to Europe in March to see my boyfriend who I miss hugely, and after that three months of labwork in Australia. And after that, more travelling!