I, on the other hand, went with seniors to kayak the 4,000 islands group of the Mekong river, in southern Laos. We spent the days kayaking, biking, hiking, inner tubing, and site seeing. The nights we spent interviewing local people to learn what life is like for an average villager along the Mekong river. Students were broken into groups that had at least one Thai speaker. Thai and Laotian languages are close enough that a conversation could take place. The students would write questions together. The Thai speaker would translate and someone else recorded. After dinner, students would take turns reporting to the group what they learned about the people through their conversations.
It was very obvious to the students that they lived a privileged life. They learned a lot about the people, their families, their hardships and the way progress of the outside world was changing their lives. But the trip was about having fun too. We kayaked every day, sometimes twice a day, never in serious rapids, but plenty to keep a bunch of rookie kayakers thrilled. Most of the students had never kayaked before. Teaching them how to coordinate their paddling in these double kayaks while also teaching them how to steer was no easy task. They would run aground, run into bushes, run into each other. They would splash each other, whack each other with their paddles and go in circles.
The area we kayaked was home to some notable distinctions. The Khone falls are the widest stretch of falls in the world. Covering a width over 6 miles meant you never saw the whole thing at once but the sections we did see where beautiful. We were able to spend time watching the Irrawaddy Dolphins. These are a species of fresh water dolphins that are considered highly endangered. The river is also home to the Mekong catfish, the largest freshwater fish in the world.
The river is very warm, not bathwater warm, but warm enough to float down the river for close to three hours in an inner tube.
Although there are lakes and rivers all around Bangkok and its suburbs, the water is not clean enough to swim in. The Mekong was the first body of fresh water I have swam in since I’ve left Seattle. The lead guide told us we could swim in the river. I think he meant wading, because he had a strange look when I actually went out into the river and started swimming. The current was strong enough that at about 15 to 20 yards off shore I would swim facing upstream but not get anywhere.
The last night of the trip we spent camping on a huge sand bar about a mile long and one half mile wide. There were seven senior boys that needed one more body for some four on four touch football. They asked me to play like they were asking some guy in a wheelchair. There was even a little argument as to what the teams would be. Obviously nobody wanted the old guy. Well the old guy held his own, toasting his defender, “the captain” of the other team, for a long touchdown and getting a pick to preserve a 3 to 2 victory. Of course I didn’t let them know that I could hardly walk the next two days.
The experience was awesome, from kayaking in a unique ecosystem to eating dinner prepared by village families, I can now truly say I am a global citizen.
The first picture reminds me that life is what you make it. The second picture is the group queing to run a stretch of small rapids between some very large rocks. The third picture is a set of trees that have been pushed over year after year when the river floods during the rainy season.
The fourth picture is sunset from a village. Fifth is a village house. The sixth picture is a forest losing its leaves. Here forest lose their leaves in January and February in preperation for the hot season that lasts March through June. The seventh picture is an ruin that dates back four to five hundred years. The stone in the eigth picture may have been used for sacrifices.
