Back into Thai World

I had a shower by torchlight this morning. At 4:45 am. Why? Because we stopped over at a little village called Pakbeng last night, where electricity is only available from 5:30am-10:00am and 6pm-10:30pm. Yes, there was no electricity ALL night. Translation: no fan or air-conditioner. Consequently, very little sleep. I decided to bite the bullet and got up at 4:30am. 3 minutes later I heard a rustling outside my window. I was convinced that not only was the heat going to kill me, but some native was going to finish me off. Turns out it was the local cockerel doing his wake-up call. But it wasn't all bad. Since the heat was unbearable and prevented me from sleeping, earlier that night I went outside to a village blanketed by darkness, and watched shooting stars light the sky and small halos of torchlight leading people to their homes or hotels.

We got back onto the boat at 6:45am and finished the remainder of our journey up the Mekong river, stopping over at a hilltribe village to say hello and play football. These people live in abject poverty but were more than happy to welcome strangers like us. It was humbling. The Mekong is lined with numerous villages hidden within the thick jungle vegetation, their presence made known by a little bit of roof poking out from the trees, or footprints on the sandy shores leading away from the many fishing poles set up like infantrymen along the jagged rocky portions of the river. Large parts of the jungle have also been cleared, with smoke from fires used to clear the land billowing into the sky as trees are chopped down and logged off and the land prepared for planting rice and other foodstuff by the natives.

We're now back in Thailand (in a bordertown called Chiang Khong). Which means this Indochina adventure is nearly at an end. How is that possible? Where did the month go? I don't want to go back. Seriously. As much as I want the blood-sucking orgy the mozzies are having with me to end, the prospect of returning to "normal/boring" life in 2 weeks is more traumatising. And no more Yatzee too. What am I to do?