“Mekong” Mick’s Wildass Adventure–Chapter 16: In which Mick parties too hard, hooks up with a New Zealand expedition, and visits a resort…:
“I camped in a small rural Lao village that night and swapped stories by candle light with the bemused locals who could hardly believe that I had paddled down from Tibet nor that I could speak Lao to boot. Speaking Lao makes it all the more difficult to s ay no to the endless shots rice whisky that inevitably break out around dinner time. After more than 2 months of not drinking alcohol it wasn’t long before I went from tipsy, to bullet proof to a mess. I can only assume that the boat race was arranged somewhere between the bullet proof and mess stages of the evening but the 4.30 am chorus of pigs and chickens under the stilted, thatch house was soon followed by the murmurings of a crowd of locals who gathered outside patiently waiting for the big event to start.
I opened my eyes to the sight of about 15 people who had been sitting there watching me sleep for god knows how long before crawling out of bed with a throbbing headache. After a breakfast of bamboo soup and sticky rice there was no getting out of it. I had to race 3 strapping young fishermen in a long sleek wooden pirogue. There’s nothing Lao people love more than a good boat race and all 120 or so people from the village came down to watch their boys whoop the “falang” (Foreigner in Lao language). I must have been terribly drunk to agree to such a challenge. Their boat was twice as long as mine and about the same width. Over the 300-meter course the boys pulled away by about 20 meters and by the end of it I was trying my best no t to hurl breakfast into the river as the delighted crowd cheered their boys home. Never again! I promised myself.
The next day I bumped into the New Zealanders. They were a great bunch of people and we spent hours swapping stories and experiences from the upper Mekong. Like my trip their expedition had been plagued by unforeseen problems. They had spent 3 full weeks in Jinghong attempting to get their imported kayaks out of customs and sorting out p permits to cross by kayak into Laos. To their distress they were also forced to leave the Mekong Valley through much of the Tibetan section because the roads that they were told were bike-able through the area did not exist.
Eventually we bade farewell and I paddled on ahead to the Paradise Casino Resort, an obscurely located but pleasant resort among the dense forests of North West Myanmar. A friend had arranged a sponsored stay at the resort and after many weeks of camping, village stays and budget guesthouses it was a welcome change. Rice and 2-minute noodles were replaced with sushi and roast beef and with five or six meals per day both Brian and I managed to put on 3 kilos in just over a week. Thanks Ton!!
We attempted to film in the countryside around the resort which was protected by a Burmese military garrison just upstream but were informed that even with an escort it would be too risky with strong rebel activity in the area so we had to settle for the sushi and Australian wines instead of the harsh realities of rural life in North East Myanmar.
We crossed into Thailand at Chiang Saen to pick up the newest member of the team Hutch Brown from Main USA. Along with another 2 cameras and a hunger to explore the Mekong basin hutch also brought new sea kayaks sponsored by feel free kayaks and arranged by Admotive Thailand making our expedition far more efficient t. You guys rock!”
Tomorrow: Fishing, festivals, and a man named “Thong”…
“Thank God, someone’s finally turning the sun off. I have the hangover that ate Beijing…”
(Photo: Courtesy Lynley O’Shea)
The Earthist Chronicles 