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It seems that without fail, no journey I undertake in Asia can run smoothly. The mere hint of a thought of naïve smoothness in my mind and the touching of something wooden, will eventually result in some unexpected situation occurring. Take my boat trip from Luang Prabang to Nong Khiaw for example. It started well, and finished great, travelling through spectacular (though hazy) scenery, little communities and kids everywhere swimming, fishing, or manically waving at us as if their lives depended on it. But of course, this false sense of security is fraught with danger as we pass through ridiculously shallow and narrow sections of rapids that would be hard to even float a rubber duck through. Our boat driver gave off the impression he knew what he was doing though, which helps, as long as he did, in fact, know what he was doing, and the narrowest of routes would miraculously present themselves between rocks as we ploughed through - upstream. Only occasionally did we have to get out of the boat in knee-deep water and help push it up against the shallow, strong current, but this is normal for a boat trip...right?

Completing the circle

Simon Wadsworth
2006-09-04 15:02:51

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It seems that without fail, no journey I undertake in Asia can run smoothly. The mere hint of a thought of naïve smoothness in my mind and the touching of something wooden, will eventually result in some unexpected situation occurring. Take my boat trip from Luang Prabang to Nong Khiaw for example. It started well, and finished great, travelling through spectacular (though hazy) scenery, little communities and kids everywhere swimming, fishing, or manically waving at us as if their lives depended on it. But of course, this false sense of security is fraught with danger as we pass through ridiculously shallow and narrow sections of rapids that would be hard to even float a rubber duck through. Our boat driver gave off the impression he knew what he was doing though, which helps, as long as he did, in fact, know what he was doing, and the narrowest of routes would miraculously present themselves between rocks as we ploughed through - upstream. Only occasionally did we have to get out of the boat in knee-deep water and help push it up against the shallow, strong current, but this is normal for a boat trip...right?

This is just a small blog (I can hear your breathing relaxation from here), to keep you up-to-date with my ramblings back to Bangkok, before, I suspect, my disappearance from the wild and crazy blog scene for a couple of weeks as Caroline arrives!!!!!!

And why not have one more exclamation mark for good luck: !

Nong Khiaw is a small, bustling village either side of the river connected by a huge Roman-esque bridge, surrounded 360o by tall, green (or black) mountains - in many ways reminiscent of Chamonix in the Alps. I spent a day exploring the countryside and nearby villages by my now favourite type of bicycle in Asia (to those who remember) - except in the hilly landscape here (as opposed to the flat, Cambodian landscape). the fruitful friendship with my 1-geared bike was fading fast, as my calf ...

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