Well, continuing on from the last post…
We get to the beach and it is clear that they are not going to continue on by slow boat. Now they are trying to sell us 1000 baht per person tickets in speed boats to get to the next stop (Pak Bang.) No one goes for it, but again, huge amounts of time are wasted explaining we are not going to fall into their scam. They adapt, saying that they will take us to the spot where we will sleep in the sand for 500 baht (instead of walking) again, no one goes for it… well they try again, how about 100 baht and we just bring your bags? No dice from anyone. It seemed a few tried, but we all ended up in the same spot eventually.
Now it is dark, and our group of 80 to 120 people or so has been fairly split up as some had started walking to the sleep area, while others stayed behind to keep trying to figure out what exactly was happening. We started off as a group of 5, an picked up people as we wandered through the winding and weaving trails. Grass was taller than me on both sides and it was hard to keep sight of the person in front of you. Very quickly the remaining light from the sunset was gone and we were wandering in pitch black, always with some one in front, but never knowing who that was, or why they chose the paths they chose. We eventually found a village and some guy from there tried to lead us to the spot. Lots of confusion later we break over a bluff and we cannot even start to believe what is there…
Lights, bonfires, food stands, beer, people, people, and more people. Kids from the villages, music over huge speakers, it was a massive freaking party in the middle of the Mekong river. It was hard to wrap your brain around at first, we expected sleeping in the sand, maybe a small fire if we were lucky and could get some sort of dry wood from some where. Eventually we just became a part of it. Some tasty eats, my first (and last) “beer lao” and then playing with my camera to try and get some neat shots at night. These kids were quite fascinated by us, and especially excited to see themselves on my camera after taking a picture.
Eventually we settled in to sleep under Jen’s mosquito net in our sleeping bags.