1103373284 - 2004-01-24
The Worst Journey of my life and Andy and I fall out , forever...
I'm back from Laos, which was stunning, however getting back to Pai was an ordeal. I had two nightmare bus journeys. The first from Luang Prabang to Luang Namtha, which was an overnight trip. I'd had a really good day visiting all the Wats with a monk that I got chatting to. He gave me a tour on his moped and told me about the history of the place and he spoke very good English. He was only 19 and had come from Vietnam when he was only 7 to become a Monk here. He gave me a photo of himself in his saffron robes and his email address. I had to rush off to get the 7.30pm bus but ended up sitting on it in the bus station for two hours waiting for it to leave. It was so cramped for a Westerner with long legs like me, and they filled the aisle up with plastic stools for extra passengers to sit on. I couldn't believe people would be sitting on them for seven hours. I was sitting on the wheel and had even less legroom, but as luck would have it, the guy sitting next to me got off after a couple of hours so I stretched out, albeit guiltily so. The driver kept playing awful Laotion music tapes over the PA system which was awful quality. I coldn't understand why. It was a night journey and surely people might want to sleep? One tape had The Ketchup Song at the beginning which sounded like an old favourite compared to the other shit he was playing. That illustrates how bad Laotian music is. We arrived at Luang Namtha at 5.30am and it was freezing! I met a Dutch girl who I shared a room with. My next journey from hell made that one look like first class travel. 178 kms taking 10 hours over a dirt track whilst I'm suffering from diarrhea and vomiting over the side of the truck, luckily Dutch girl gave me some tablets for the diarrhea. I don't know what I would have done if she hadn't. You'd think I'd at least remember her name though! I shouldn't have travelled that day because I woke up feeling so ill. Must have been something I ate, but I was so desperate to get back to Pai, I would have done anything. The thought of another day away from that place was justunthinkable. The journey almost killed me though. I have never experienced torture like it; and it was torture. The 'bus' was a Utility truck with wooden seats fitted in the back and it was freezing cold in the morning up high in the mountains. The driver packed in about double the number of passengers he should have and still stopped in another town to pick up three more girls who had bags of rice. The Dutch girl was really pissed off and kept telling the driver there was no way he could get any more in, but he did. I don't know how. Every time we stopped at a town I dreaded it because I thought he would squeeze more people on. He was getting $5 per passenger, but us lot in the back were suffering terribly for his profit. More than a few times we had order police stopping us to check for ID, sometimes taking passengers off the bus. It scared me that they had guns and the fact that you can't understand what is being said makes it all the more intriguing. My imagination just ran wild with possible outcomes. Of course nobody got shot, they just got back on the bus. Towards the end of the hell of it all; to top it off, as we were approaching Huay Xai, a truck spewing out water over our side of the road was seen in the distance. We all looked at each other with panic in our eyes and hoped that it would stop for us. Our driver just kept going and so did the truck and luckily I was was on the other side of the Ute. The poor guys opposite me got soaked. Such a bad end to an awful journey. Like the final insult.
When we finally arrived in the border town, the driver didn't even take us to the main road where the hostels were. He just dumped us at the bus station. me abd Dutch girl were so knackered but we were so pissed off with being ripped off and so stubborn that we decided to figure it out for ourselves. We asked a few locals which way to go and most of them seemed to be high or just unfriendly. Even the Monks pretended they didn't understand and just laughed
at us. We gave up and got a Tuk-tuk. It was quite far to walk really and when we checked into a hotel I just collapsed into bed. Dutch girl wanted to go out and eat, but I was chilled to the bone and even though I was starving I just wanted to stay in bed. What a day, what a nightmare.
It was a good experience for me to go through, as I shall never travel like that again (I hope) and I shall never complain about any journeys I take from now on, because we are so spoilt here in the West.
The situation back in Pai is different to how I left it. I need use this entry as a personal piece again, coz my head is spinning. I'm back after some tortorous days travelling and my head is a bit messed up. I was so happy to be back, but then my friend Andy who I was staying with for a few nights went a bit mad on Valium and did my head in big time. I stayed at his as I haven't booked into a hostel yet. Big mistake, we had a massive row this morning at 7.30am and I stormed out and I'm still fuming. He's mental. Says I should have told him that he was talking too much bollocks or something, he didn't make much sense to be honest. Dave and Jim are in Soppong for Chinese New Year, so I've had to put up with Andy on my own and he is very attention seeking and intense. He's also just bought a motorcross bike which he can't stop banging on about. The others are back today hopefully... So I'm moving out. I want to move into the same place as Craig by the river, purely coz it has a great view, you can smoke weed there and Craig will be my neighbour.
He has a Thai girlfriend who works at the bar we drink at and although I know he would and has cheated on her, (he had a threesome in Chiang Mai the other night) I like her so I wouldn't do anything, but the crush is getting quite strong and affecting me in that annoying way. I'm not sure if he knows, but Andy said it was obvious I liked him and so Craig would have noticed too. he's totally unsuitable of course. It's all got complicated now!
I need my independence and space and peace and quiet. All Andy does is talk about himself. He's an ex-cokehead and I can see it now. We just clash far too much. I'm too laid back (I smoke a lot, whereas Andy doesn't really, he prefers cocaine -yuk) It's all very childish really.
Anyway, he's stopped taking the valium. He can't handle it. He gave me 40 mgs when I got back from Laos to chill and it knocked me out, I was falling asleep in M*onkey Ma*gic.
Andy's place he's renting has inspired me, it would be perfect as a home/studio and it's cheap. Next time I'll do that, make it cozy. It's got a large verandah too.
