One of the greatest, and sometimes
weirdest, aspects of travel can be the people that we meet. Magic can really
happen when happenstance takes over and random and fortuitous encounters occur.
The meeting of strangers can often, somewhat counterintuitively, eliminate the
strangeness of a new place.
Today started off as a normal day. I woke up quite late
because I couldn’t sleep. Meanwhile, Ricky was on the bunk below me, giggling
to himself while watching Top Gear. At
about noon, we got out of bed, had ourselves some cereal and prepared for the
day.
Some of our plans fell through, so we decided to go for a
little drive and see a couple of sights.
We headed toward a huge golden stupa in the distance, and as we neared,
we saw that what separated it from us
was a massive empty parking lot, the kind you put a traveling carnival in. As
soon as we scooted in past a mostly closed gate (which should have been our
first sign), Ricky got a devious grin on his face.
“This is going to be fun.”
We drove around the lot for a while until we came to one end
and he challenged me.
“Naught to fifty to
naught.”
So we backed up to the curb, counted down and took off. Much
to Ricky’s surprise I stayed right with him, and when I looked down I was
nearly at 55 kmph and slammed on the brakes.
My tail snaked around me, but I stayed upright, much to my own surprise.
Well, it was so much fun that we decided to go again so we
headed back to the start. Right behind us, however, were the coppers.
I smiled at them as they headed toward us, despite my fear
that I was about to be arrested, because I heard that was the best defense
mechanism for Lao police, and offered a cheerful “Sabaidee!” (hello)
They didn’t speak English, but sign-languaged their way into
telling us that we can’t be here and that we have to leave. We apologized
profusely, told them we would exit right away, and thanked them with a smile.
Before we had put our helmets back on they had driven away.
We were pleasantly surprised, because we had heard some
horror stories about foreigners being locked up or forced to pay outrageous
amounts of money.
Well, our time would come…
Later in the evening we met a couple from Spain and an
American girl they were traveling with. We sat and chatted for a while, then
went off for dinner. After dinner, Ricky suggested that we burn some cash.
Literally.
See, in China, they sell fake 100 RMB bills for people to
burn in huge piles on the street. When they burn, the ashes and smoke go
upward, toward the person’s ancestors in the afterlife. There, they will be
rich.
Ricky had bought a stack of the money in China but we had
never gotten around to burning it. So we got the money and headed down to the
shores of the Mekong River to make an offering to our ancestors.
We sat in a circle, taking turns tossing bills into the
small fire, as we said who each one was for. Grandmothers, grandfathers, great
aunts, everybody. It was actually quite nice to take a moment and think of the
ones we had lost.
We had just burned the last bill and begun talking about how
we felt (awww!) when trouble came.
The police came to bust up our party. There was one who
seemed to be in charge, and a few lackeys.
The conversation went something like this.
Police: You, no here.
Us: What?
Police: You, no here, after 9. You mistake.
Us: Oh yes, mistake! We made a mistake, we can’t be here
after 9! We’ll just be going now!
Police: Stop! You, Thailand *swimming motion*
Us: No sir, we didn’t swim over from Thailand. See? We’re
dry
Police: Passports!
Us: Sorry, we don’t have our passports with us.
Police: You, mistake, no here. Follow me, police station.
Us: What? Why? We’ll leave now. We didn’t know. We’re very
sorry.
Police: Passports! You smoke?
Us: What?
Police: You smoke (something no one understood)?
Us: No, sir, we don’t smoke that.
Police: Bag! (pointing at Ricky. He then proceeds to go
through the contents of our backpack. He was
very suspicious of one pen.)
Police: You follow me police station. Give mistake money.
Us: Well, how much?
Police: (counts us) Ah, 5. Ah, $200 each.
Us: What? No way! We don’t have that! We’ll just be going
now.
We began to walk away, ignoring a weak “Stop!”
We walked faster, feeling like fugitives escaping the law,
and when we were brave enough to look behind us, we realized they weren't following us. We walked fast anyway and hurried through the marked and out the
other side, back to our guesthouse where we caught our breath and thanked our
ancestors for helping us out, which was nice, after all that money we sent
them.
So now we’re here, safe in our tiny dorm room, with a cement
floor and a window that looks out into the indoor stairwell, basking in our fugitive glory.
The Lao police probably aren’t hunting for us, and that’s
probably for the best, but being a fugitive for those couple of minutes today
sure was exciting!
And here are the best things about the trip. Be jealous.
4. The scenery
China doesn't have anything on Laos. We put up a couple of posts on Chinese scenery here and here. Now, China is beautiful, but dang. I mean daaaaang! We saw some of the most beautiful things either of us had ever seen. We drove up into the mountains, I mean straight up into them. And there we were at the top, staring straight at the tops of the other green mountains around us. Lush green jungle surrounded us, and on the hills around us were fields of rice and banana trees. Tiny villages dotted the hills and cloudy blue skies were over the whole world.
3. The road
Now, as some of you may know, I (Talia) am not an expert motorbike rider/driver/pilot or whatever it is you do with a motorbike. Ricky, on the other hand, is. So he sped along, taking the tight curves at high speeds while I tried to get the hang of leaning into the turns instead of braking and inching along. I'll have you know I am improving. Often, Ricky made me go in front so he wouldn't unintentionally leave me behind, because he is the tenderest morsel of them all. So there I was, struggling around tight mountain curves, dodging potholes, in too high a gear going uphill...
and I freaking loved it. It was the most exhilerating and frightening thing I've ever done, and I can't wait to do it again! Remember all that stuff I said about the scenery? Picture driving through that. Picture the jungle around you, the wind rushing through your...er...helmet. For safety. The twisting roads and the downhill speeds, everything. Everything was perfect.
2. The local fauna
No, we didn't see tigers or monkeys or elephants. But here's what we did see.
1 lizard, which Ricky almost destroyed.
1 small brown tortoise, which Ricky did destroy (accidentally).
A million butterflies, 7 of which destroyed themselves upon our chests, helmets, and goggles.
2 dogs gettin' it on in the middle of the road. Don't worry, all the traffic drove around them so as not to sour the moment of passion.
Several cows, which I shot with my finger gun. (pyew pyew!)
A family of sprinting pigs.
4 fat ducks waddling slowly across the road.
Chickens.
1. The people
Oh man. The people. This is where Laos has China beat again. The people are so nice and friendly. Many a time we drove through a mountain village and small children waved at us. When we waved back, they let out a cheerful "wooohooo!" At one point, after we stopped to fill up the bikes, I started to pull away. A girl waved to me, and when I waved back, she ran after me, waving and shouting.
Later in the afternoon, we passed a whole horde of kids going home from school, some walking, most on bikes. They waved, we waved, smiles all around.
Not just the kids were friendly. Many adults waved and smiled at us, including truck drivers, other motorbikers, and villagers. There was no way we could be unhappy.
Well there it is. The 4 reasons we had more fun than you'll ever have, ever. No. I mean, 4 reasons we loved driving for 8 hours despite potholes and humping dogs.
