So once off the bus, I checked into a place in town. It’s pretty easy in places like Laos and Cambodia for that type of shit. Every time you get off a bus there’s a herd of guest house vultures waiting for their prey (you!!!), then as soon as you leave the safety confines of the bus they…. POUNCE!!!!…. and try and convince you that their place is the next best thing to the Ritz at a fraction of a fraction of the price…… in fact, compared to the Ritz they’re actually free!!!!!
But I usually go with eye contact to make my decision and whoevers eyes I make contact with and seem the most genuine, then that’s usually my decision made. This time an Irish girl followed suit and we went to a reasonably nice place, where she then asked if I wanted to share a room with her….. but it was said in such a way that I knew there were “implications” being suggested, but she wasn’t my type and seeing as my head really wasn’t in a place for anything like that….. I preferred sleep alone!!!!
Then after settling in I went out and scouted about town. Its a strange little place, really just one main road that goes on for maybe ¾ of a mile, with shops and restaurants either side, with no major features around and the countryside just being dead flat. When I checked in Bees Lonely Planet it basically called the place (cant remember its name at the mo!!!) “a bit of a shit hole” in the nicest possible way. I actually didn’t think it was shit though, for what it was……..(basically a town that’s grown along a road because of the Plain of Jars)…….it served its purpose – not like Vientienne or Pakse when you expect more of a town which has grown up alongside a river.
I found out the deal for seeing the Plain of Jars and it turned out you could only see them on organised tours as police permission was required, and only Laos people could get the licenses…….with a bribe of course!!!! I’d met some Israelis who also wanted to go there the next day and we set about bargaining for a price for a mini-bus……. Israelis are good at shit like that, and the weirdest thing is that all over south-east Asia there’s 3 prices – one for locals, one for back packers and one….. FOR ISRAELIS!!!! I got no idea how this has happened but it’s an unwritten rule that the South East Asians give the Israelis a discounted price automatically!!!! I dont know what the deal is…. but if somethings $2 for me…. then its $1 for an Isreali!!! How did that come about?!!!! I dont think even the Israelis know….. although they’re quite happy rubbing in the fact at every given opportunity!!!!….. Maybe they are the chosen people after all!!!!! Or maybe they’re just jammie bastards!!!! 😉
Only Joking!!!! 🙂 I’ve always found the Israelis to be pretty nice people…. although I always hear so many people slagging them off and speaking badly of them. Yeah… of course the odd one’s a bit arrogant…… but you get the odd arrogant person in every country….. and in France you get the odd two!!!!!! 😉 But these Israelis were cool as fuck….. apart from going on about Israeli prices!!!! 😉
I also checked my email and was gutted to see that once again Nicole hadn’t kept her word, only this time it was over something that was supposed to be so important. I felt let down and a bit hurt, and I was beginning to completely question her sincerity and honesty. But perhaps there was a good reason why she hadn’t sent it yet……but then again, she could of always have texted me that reason……. if it really mattered to her. I didn’t like being treated like this way, I didn’t feel I deserved it and felt I deserved better……. but at no point did I ever resent her in anyway…..and that’s another thing about the way I felt for her…….. I seemed to have so much capacity for understanding…… or the capacity for being a mug!!!…. I felt like I knew her and at no point did I ever feel angry towards her…… it felt impossible for me to feel anger towards her!!!!! In fact, I wish I could have felt angry towards her cos that would’ve made it a lot easier to let go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But I had the sensation that I should keep putting myself on the line at the risk of being rejected….. maybe that was what I had to learn from all this……. maybe that was my path……. to let go of my pride….. because pride can make you ignore your heart and do the wrong thing.
I know all this may sound a bit fucking pathetic……but it was so hard…….I was emotionally fucked again and in the back end of nowhere and I had absolutely no one to talk to!!! Just my own thoughts going around and around and around and around and around and around and around…………….. and around! I felt consumed by the love I had for her and I just wanted it to be realised or released. Just knowing one way or the other what was going on would’ve done that.
I went back to the guest house, and there, checking into a room was…. Owen…. the guy who I met on the Thai/Cambodian border and had got a taxi with him and his missus to Siem Riep (Angkor). He was covered in mud and had apparently had been on one hell of a journey. He was coming down from Vang Vein enroute to Vietnam, and apparently the road from Vang Vein had had a mudslide and was out. There was nothing to do, cos no emergency services or army were gonna fix it, so some of the Laos people started digging and putting boulders along the road. All the westerners saw what was happening and so started chipping in….. and then as soon as that happened all the Laos people left them to it and sat on their arses!!!!! Cheeky bastards!!!! He reckoned there was about 20-30 backpackers fixing the road and not a Laos body to be seen!!!! What a liberty!!!! He said “It was good fun though” and I goes “Yeah…. it really looks like it was good fun!!!! I can see you’ve had a ball :-)”.
Owen and his friends were up for the the Jars and so they joined us the next morning, along with another few people, which meant, per head, the bus had now become cheaper than chips……… being sold to the Jews…….. at Israeli prices!!! 😉
Love and Light,
Miller
The Adventures of Miller 