Memories -LAOS

I’m back in SA after 20 months of living and traveling abroad. It’s lots of fun going and working in another country. Making lovely friends and learning loads about oneself. I worked in Thailand for 18 months. Being thrown into a kindergarten class full of Thai students was daunting. After surviving that I knew I am capable of doing anything. Well I thought so. I met a lovely, cleaver American man who also taught English there. We shared 10 sweet months together. But time ran out and we parted ways in opposite directions. That’s the sad part of travelling, the saying goodbye, one of the hardest things I had to do. But as a friend of mine said: “It’s not goodbye, it’s see you later”. And this prepared me and made me stronger to be able to say goodbye to many more fellow travelers. Here are some snippets.

29 April 2011 LAOS

I woke up this morning with a stiff neck. Is it because I slept wrong? No ways. It’s from all the head banging down by the river. What a glorious experience: tubing in Laos. As noon sets in we prepare ourselves. Bikinis’ tubing shirt and shorts and off we go. Taking a ‘tuk-tuk’, he drops us at the top of the river and the first of many free shots are offered. This place is something from another world. Hundreds of foreigners getting drunk on shots and buckets, floating down the river going from bar to bar and sliding down slides, in their drunken state. Vang Viang is the place to be. Some people get offered jobs and stay here for months getting to be drunk all day and give out shots.

At first you’re not sure what to make of this but you soon discover the table where you can pour free whiskey shots and help yourself to some. At the corner of my eye I see a bleach blond dude, short black tight shorts, shirt-les dancing around like a stripper in a night club. But it is 2pm and I am way to sober for this. A few sips from a bucket and my friends encourage me to go dance with him. I walk straight over and pull out my moves but all he wants to do is grind me. He gets to close and I back away still dancing and realizing the people around find it quite entertaining. When it gets too much for me I leave the dance floor and others join in after.

We regroup, get into the river and float down to the next bar. I think back on my life in Phuket and the man I shared it with whom I had to part ways. I recall our memories and know how much he would love to be in this place with me. The only way to hide my tears is to through myself in the river and put my shades on. Trying not to think of him brings more tears to my eyes. How I miss his brought shoulders and afro hair. His brought smile and chillness. We shared an amazing 10 months together and had to part ways because he had some unfinished business in Saudi Arabia and I wanted to become a backpacker. The tears flow as I sit in the bar overlooking the river and watching people drop down from swings, plummeting into the water. The music reaches me as I come back to reality and know that I am gonna have a good time on this river and not be stuck in the past.

Bar 3 is where the party is at. Somewhere between the first and third bar 4 hours have passed by and it is time to shake, shake, shake our bodies. Life is good and all our friends we picked up on the journey from Thailand to Laos are still together. Soon my sadness washes away and I am grateful for all I have and being able to take this journey here to be with these stunning people. I love each one of them and each brings an important vibe to the group. Wauter a Dutch, 18 year old boy with fluffy blond hair and blue eyes, skinny and tall, is very bombastic and honest. We’ve had some Dutch/Afrikaans conversations. He is good to have around if you want to smoke some weed. Scott is from America, 33 years old just started out his 1 year travel plan. He is the most fun loving person I have meat. Big beard, bold head, short and stout. He looks like he could have been one of the dwarfs from Snow White, the one called Happy. His chuckle is contagious it comes from deep inside and bursts forth like a fountain.

And this was just the beginning…