We had been in Thailand for around three weeks when we had our first official border crossing. We crossed the Mekong River to Huay Xai, Laos. We stepped into tiny little wooden boats that I was sure were gonna sink and crossed a tiny river. I'm sure it was shallow enough for us to wade over. Nonetheless we had the drama of getting in these creaky little boats and stumbling out on the other side. Another country, we were in Laos.
We queued up to see one man who looked at my passport, looked at me, looked at my passport, muttered something, stamped it and handed it back to me. He pointed to another man, it seemed I needed to walk to this other man. This was the man I had to pay. I paid him, no idea how much, and he gave me another stamp and I was off on my merry may to another man.
The third man, was the money man. I just gave the money man the rest of my Thai money to change and drew out £50 from the cash point. After clearing immigration, we travel by van into the rugged, remote north of Laos to the small town of Luang Nam Tha. I don't know how we survived that van ride. I'm not sure the driver had a driving license, I'm really not. We drove down lots of windy, bendy roads at what seemed like 100 mph and eventually came to an abrupt halt at our guest house.
We all clambered out of the van desperate for food and rest. We checked into our guest house and were led down to our rooms. As soon as we arrived we knew this guest house was going to be lovely. It was simple looking, but lovely. The reception was all wood, wood floors, wood walls, wood roof, wood everything. Too the left was the lovely restaurant we would come to eat in 3 or 4 times a day. Once we were past the little wooden reception we were led down some little paths, surrounded by green trees and pink flowers. It was really beautiful and calm. We were led to lovely little bamboo huts with small balconies that looked over a small river. We were surrounded by nature and it was going to be a perfect place to chill out for a few days and relax.
We joked about our rooms having heaters and really thick blankets in. We were all a bit confused, it was lunchtime and nice and warm. We all had dinner in the guest house restaurant that night and had our first experience of Laotion food. Delicious. I had some kind of sticky rice, spicy chicken, and vegetables. It was lovely, we were also shown how to eat with our hands. You use the sticky rice as your cutlery.
We all had an early night because we were pretty shattered. The group were going trekking for 3 days in the morning but me and gill were staying behind in the little guesthouse. We had no idea what we were going to do, we planned on chilling out a lot and reading our books.
It was around 8 pm now and we found out just why we needed the blankets and heaters. It was freezing ! Bloody freezing ! The temperature had dropped so much. We were definitely going to need those heaters !
The next day me and gill decided to explore. We found two bikes at the guest house and decided to cycle to the nearest town. About an hour away. We were literally in the middle of no where.
I had all my money I had converted the day before at the border. Anyone that knows me, knows Im damn terrible with money. I just don't understand money. Even English money, im just terrible at it, I get confused so easily. I had just gotten used to using Baht in Thailand and then I had to move to another country and learn all about another currency. Something was bound to go wrong. Sooner, rather than later.
So we cycled for about half an hour until we reached the nearest town. This town was very basic, it had a few basic restaurants, a motorbike shop, a regular convenience store and lots of local people selling fruit, veg, cats, dogs, donkeys, you name it, they were selling it. When we were cycling up the hill towards the town, we were so pleased to see it. It was like a little gold mine on the horizon after seeing rice paddies for so long.
I popped into a shop and bought a can of coke. Damn my love for coke. I handed the friendly old man a note, he went to give me back some change, and silly ole me said ' No no, you keep the change' .
Obviously I was confused.
Obviously I was craving that coke so bad.
Obviously I was exhausted from the bike ride and feeling faint.
Actually, im just stupid. I thought I was giving him about 20 pence change, but in reality I was giving him about £35 change. No wonder the little dude seemed so damn happy with himself.
So there we go, the first time I got ripped off. I'll never forget it, but I'll always laugh about it.
Who spends £36 on a can of coke ?
Anastasia does.
Anastasia does.
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