Tribes decided

 

December 30 2022, Someplace in Laos between here and there

We’ve been on the boat for a little more than 12 hours and already the tribes seem to have separated. Some great, some neutral and one that is entitled.

One couple from Toronto In like her a lot. She doesn’t candy coat how she feels about things. She is the kind of a good friend everyone needs. Someone who will tell you the truth. It may not be what you want to hear but it frequently is what you need to hear.. She runs a blog www.travelingjudi.com I’ll have to remember to check her writing out, from time to time.

There are the two belles of the ball from Orlando, both on the younger side of the passenger census. Sisters and cute. There is the Australian couple. He used to work for the foreign service in the 70’s, so I assume he was a spy. I’ll have to see how he drinks his Martinis. There is the Anglo/Thai couple. Not the typical old guy looking for a Thai honey in Patya Beach. They met in Austin Texas of all places and have been together for something like 40 years. Boy, she is a talker. I don’t think she has ever had an unspoken thought, but she is sweet and funny.

Then there is the woman from J’Berg South Africa, via England. I get the feeling that life was pretty good for her, until it wasn't. She hasn’t had a positive thing to say about anything in the brief conversations I’ve had with her. At lunch in Vientiane she told Vieng out guide she needed some batteries for her Mini Mag light. They had to be AA, she repeated about 3 times, and when he asked to see the flash light, she pulled it away and emphatically said it needed AA batteries. I put her on the naughty list over that.

My nose has been running better than a Rolex. That and shortness of breath, really knocked me off my usual ‘Tigger-ness”. I was Eore all day. I wasn’t sure if it was Malaria, Dengue Fever, or a new variant of COVID 32-Omega. Then again I might just have been a darned cold. I grabbed my softest pack and stuffed it under my head and closed my eyes for the entire 6 hours. I don’t know if I slept or not, I just know I wasn't totally there. Got on the real boat, had a quick dinner of appetizer and soup and went back to my stateroom at 830 and was asleep by nine. I woke up after total blankness and said “Siri, what time is it”, It is 4:11” I was really happy with that. Seven solid hours the best I’ve had in a week.

Three cups of Laos’ answer to Starbucks and it as Easter Morning for me. Se has risen!

This morning was foggy so the planned 10am requisite village tour has been delayed until this afternoon. So instead we can learn how to say hello and good bye in Lao. Apparently they don’t know about Google Translate. I didn’t bring a sweatshirt. What do you need a sweatshirt for, past experiences in SE Asia is any clothing is too much clothing. It seems on the Mekong I the morning, you do need a sweater or light jacket. All I have is my purple parka which is a hint overkill.

1130am cruising along, and I think we are caught up for a while.

I passed on the language class. I really didn’t think I would retain much of it, without using it. Lunch was larger than my regular dinner. I have got to start saying ‘No’ but everything is too tasty. We nosed into the riverbank and gangway set and off we went to do the village walking tour. When I was in Syria I went to a museum at Palmyra, it was school field trip day. Children would run up to me and say “Hello” and run away hundreds of them. I tied ‘how are you?’ back, but eventually a teacher told me that the students only knew “Hello” in English. I kind of felt the same here, except in reverse. My crew mates were all “Sah Be Dah” everywhere. Over and over. I sort of felt bad for the villagers. Our wrangler Vieng coaxed the children to come with us, with a “Don’t give them money, but yo can buy them something at the store before we leave”. That damn Thai twat was handing out change to the kids. Apparently her hearing is not as good as her stupidity.

The ship's Purser Mr. Jimmy came up to me to find out which Thai airport I was flying out of so he cold set up transportation. I guess no one had ever done what I want to do, stay in Laos and cross over with the boat to Thailand. Vieng had to explain to him twice what I oped to do. I think it will work out.

Overheard today: “I like the younger ones”. I didn’t tell him ‘Dude, at your age hey arr ALL younger ones.’