"Butterflies on the Mekong" is the title of a book a friend of mines gave me when she heard I was going to South East Asia for the first time. It's the story of this italian couple on holiday in that area and their adventures/misadventures. I didn't really like the book but there was a scene that was depicted with such clarity that it stayed with me until now. They are in Thailand, island hopping and one day the decide they want to try and do some caving.
Caving is a sport that should be done with an expert guide and tourists should only go to caves that have been sufficiently explored and that represent no risks, there should be some research about the tides beforehand and there should aways be a life jacket on board.
But of course none of this happened otherwise this story wouldn't have had such an impact on my mind.
Off they went to explore a "special" cave.
And of course they get stuck! I mean, I'm sorry I probably spoiled the story by anticipating the highlight, but I get really upset when I hear that someone gets THAT inconsiderate!!
They get into this cave, they go quite a fair bit further down, until they reach a sort of grotto, very beautiful indeed, and then when time comes to go back they find out that the tide has risen to such a level that they risk not being able to make it. The only way out is practically fully blocked by the water almost touching the ceiling of the passage, there's just a bit of an aperture left, probably less than a metre but they have to try anyway.
And that is just what they can immediately see, there's no guarantee that further on towards the exit the situation doesn't get worse!
So to try and get out they have to navigate really slowly, proceeding one inch at a time, avoiding the stalagmites jutting out from the ceiling so they lay flat on the floor of the canoe and hope for the best.
Of course at a certain point the man is trapped by a stalagmite that lodges on his chest and cannot move unless he wants to be ripped apart. The guide stops everything and tries and free him with a series of complicated swings, it probably doesn't take long but for us readers it seems like ages! During the moments in which the guy is stuck he starts thinking about the situation he's in and he obviously gets desperate but he knows that he can't get agitated otherwise he risks of getting even more stuck so he tries and keep calm with evident difficulty. His wife comes to the rescue but the only thing she can do (since they were laying flat on the floor of the canoe, in line, one after the other) is to stroke his face with her foot.
This does it, he turns his head and kisses her foot and squeezes it to tell her that they're going to be ok.
Well, if I was by that point upset enough to be expecting the worst (even though the fact that there IS a book, somehow means that they lived to tell the tale!), all my scorn evaporated in a second. I found that scene so pathetically and yet poignantly human that it cannot have been made up and it freezes the flow of time. I don't really recall how they get out of there, they obviously do and no one had been harmed, but as usual with books the important part is NOT "...and they lived happily ever after...", it's what leads to that!
You can't write a book only on happy endings, it would be boring! In a few words there must always be some struggle, some misadventure, to keep us alert and wanting to get to the end.
Isn't life the same?
Anyway, back to the Mekong.
The first time I saw the Mekong I was in Vietnam and I was in a small motor boat sailing from the border village of Chau Doc to the floating markets in the area.
There had been a split in the group that day, some of us went to a motorbike tour in the hills and only 3 of us went to the floating markets.
Now, to read it like that it sounds simple but this innocent choice is responsible for one of the biggest regrets in the story of travel!
And it's not MY regret, cause I was one of the intrepid three that chose the floating markets!!
IT WAS AMAZING!!!!
Anything you can think of when you think about Vietnam, we saw, and then some!
Floating villages complete with tv cables, a full service station spread on three boats, with the gasoline pump attached to a big pipe disappearing into the river, whole families that were watching tv or listening to the radio or playing cards, or just watching us come by and waving hello, pets like cats and dogs and other animals, chooks, even small pigs, ducks, rodents (many rodents) living on the boats and so used to them that it didn't even feel weird watching them! YES, cats living on a floating boat for a house!!!
We saw farms, whole farms on the water, with anything from crops to live stock!
We saw a couple of weaving factories (and of course I bought a couple of scarves, I always buy scarves, I have almost 100 scarves now, that's my thing!), markets selling meat and obviously fish, we saw fishermen so deep into the river that all you can see was their heads!
We even saw a mosque!!!!! Not far from there there was a muslim village so we finally decided to go visit it and put our feet back onto solid ground, but soon enough we went back to experience some more of that wonderful water world!
It's such a pity that the word "water world" reminds of either the super packed theme park in the Gold Coast (yack!) or the even yackier movie by Kevin Costner...
We stayed there until sunset and then we really had to go back but if it was for me I would have stayed there for the night!
When we got back we couldn't stop talking about it, hence the regret from all the others who had chosen the motorbike ride on the hills eh eh eh!
I've seen the Mekong many more times after that one, and it was always a magical experience.
If the Ganges hits you hard with its strong smell and colours and activities, the Mekong invades you, literally!
It's not linked to any country in specific because it runs pretty much anywhere is South East Asia, but it has a distinct character that demands your full attention in a relationship that it's either love it or hate it.
Caving is a sport that should be done with an expert guide and tourists should only go to caves that have been sufficiently explored and that represent no risks, there should be some research about the tides beforehand and there should aways be a life jacket on board.
But of course none of this happened otherwise this story wouldn't have had such an impact on my mind.
Off they went to explore a "special" cave.
And of course they get stuck! I mean, I'm sorry I probably spoiled the story by anticipating the highlight, but I get really upset when I hear that someone gets THAT inconsiderate!!
They get into this cave, they go quite a fair bit further down, until they reach a sort of grotto, very beautiful indeed, and then when time comes to go back they find out that the tide has risen to such a level that they risk not being able to make it. The only way out is practically fully blocked by the water almost touching the ceiling of the passage, there's just a bit of an aperture left, probably less than a metre but they have to try anyway.
And that is just what they can immediately see, there's no guarantee that further on towards the exit the situation doesn't get worse!
So to try and get out they have to navigate really slowly, proceeding one inch at a time, avoiding the stalagmites jutting out from the ceiling so they lay flat on the floor of the canoe and hope for the best.
Of course at a certain point the man is trapped by a stalagmite that lodges on his chest and cannot move unless he wants to be ripped apart. The guide stops everything and tries and free him with a series of complicated swings, it probably doesn't take long but for us readers it seems like ages! During the moments in which the guy is stuck he starts thinking about the situation he's in and he obviously gets desperate but he knows that he can't get agitated otherwise he risks of getting even more stuck so he tries and keep calm with evident difficulty. His wife comes to the rescue but the only thing she can do (since they were laying flat on the floor of the canoe, in line, one after the other) is to stroke his face with her foot.
This does it, he turns his head and kisses her foot and squeezes it to tell her that they're going to be ok.
Well, if I was by that point upset enough to be expecting the worst (even though the fact that there IS a book, somehow means that they lived to tell the tale!), all my scorn evaporated in a second. I found that scene so pathetically and yet poignantly human that it cannot have been made up and it freezes the flow of time. I don't really recall how they get out of there, they obviously do and no one had been harmed, but as usual with books the important part is NOT "...and they lived happily ever after...", it's what leads to that!
You can't write a book only on happy endings, it would be boring! In a few words there must always be some struggle, some misadventure, to keep us alert and wanting to get to the end.
Isn't life the same?
Anyway, back to the Mekong.
The first time I saw the Mekong I was in Vietnam and I was in a small motor boat sailing from the border village of Chau Doc to the floating markets in the area.
There had been a split in the group that day, some of us went to a motorbike tour in the hills and only 3 of us went to the floating markets.
Now, to read it like that it sounds simple but this innocent choice is responsible for one of the biggest regrets in the story of travel!
And it's not MY regret, cause I was one of the intrepid three that chose the floating markets!!
IT WAS AMAZING!!!!
Anything you can think of when you think about Vietnam, we saw, and then some!
Floating villages complete with tv cables, a full service station spread on three boats, with the gasoline pump attached to a big pipe disappearing into the river, whole families that were watching tv or listening to the radio or playing cards, or just watching us come by and waving hello, pets like cats and dogs and other animals, chooks, even small pigs, ducks, rodents (many rodents) living on the boats and so used to them that it didn't even feel weird watching them! YES, cats living on a floating boat for a house!!!
We saw farms, whole farms on the water, with anything from crops to live stock!
We saw a couple of weaving factories (and of course I bought a couple of scarves, I always buy scarves, I have almost 100 scarves now, that's my thing!), markets selling meat and obviously fish, we saw fishermen so deep into the river that all you can see was their heads!
We even saw a mosque!!!!! Not far from there there was a muslim village so we finally decided to go visit it and put our feet back onto solid ground, but soon enough we went back to experience some more of that wonderful water world!
It's such a pity that the word "water world" reminds of either the super packed theme park in the Gold Coast (yack!) or the even yackier movie by Kevin Costner...
We stayed there until sunset and then we really had to go back but if it was for me I would have stayed there for the night!
When we got back we couldn't stop talking about it, hence the regret from all the others who had chosen the motorbike ride on the hills eh eh eh!
I've seen the Mekong many more times after that one, and it was always a magical experience.
If the Ganges hits you hard with its strong smell and colours and activities, the Mekong invades you, literally!
It's not linked to any country in specific because it runs pretty much anywhere is South East Asia, but it has a distinct character that demands your full attention in a relationship that it's either love it or hate it.
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