Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Middle of Nowhere

Day 341
The alarm went off at 6:30 am and I was tempted to just turn it off and go back to sleep. This wasn't really an option though so we got up and packed our few remaining things. At the bus station we were a bit shocked to find that we would not be in a bus, but rather in the back of a pickup truck with two rows of seats. A few people had to sit on wooden children's chairs in the middle. This is not a comfortable way to travel. Luckily I ended up next to some nice people from Montreal and I chatted with them for most of the ride. Even luckier was that they actually stopped for a bathroom break in a place were there were some woods to hide in.



About 3.5 hours later we arrived to Nang Khio. I was rather sore from the trip and happy that we had a couple of hours to kill before our boat left. Nicole and I were headed to a place called Moung Ngoi, a village only accessible by boat or a long walk through the woods. The boat was very small and full. Everyone had to spend an hour and a half with their knees around their ears. Luckily we didn't get wet though.

Moung Ngoi is the most remote place I have ever been, I think. There is only one street and they only have generator powered electricity for 4 hours a day. Forget the beaten path, we had really found the road less traveled. There aren't any real guest houses here. Most families have either opened small resturants or put up a few simple bungalows in their back yards. Our bungalow had an attached bathroom, sorta. It was a squat toilet and then a faucet about 4 feet on the side of one wall. There would be no hot water. This was just what we had wanted.

After showering we went to check out the town, well, the one road. It was all homes or small resturants and the occasional shop. We picked up some candles and water before picking a place for dinner. As there is no refrigeration our options were limited. They were also cooking everything over one small fire, so it took some time for the food to arrive. We had figured this would happen and had come prepared with books.

Around 9 pm we headed back, we wanted to be able to get ready for bed before the electricity was out. We were out of luck though as they had it turned off earlier where we were staying. We lit a few candles to cut the dark and then crawled into our mossie net covered beds.

As we were basically camping and it was still really early we decided to tell ghost stories. The French couple next door yelled at us to keep it down in a very rude manor. It wasn't even 9:30pm and we weren't being that loud. It had been a really long day though and we soon fell asleep anyway.

The next day we found out that the French couple had not been prepared for there not to be 24 hour electricity and were very rude to the family who owned the bungalows. They left on the first boat the next morning. I guess some people just can't hack it.




No comments: