Adventures in South East Asia

35 ~ Scams and new roommate

The night passed just fine. I got to see the mama dog and her pups one last time and we took another drive out to the boats the following morning. I was a bit disorganized and nearly left my bag up on the river bank before I realized where they were and scrambled back up to get it. I settled back in the long boat. The owners had taken bench seats from cars and vans and bolted them to the floors to create that comfortable boat vibe.

The Mekong River was quite stunning as we went along its waters. The banks featured rock formations with white and brown sand around each curve. Green mountains rose from both sides, only slightly marked by dry seasons' hand. The colours of the leaves reflected off the river. Every so often we stopped at a village to pick up more passengers, but very few. It seemed to be primarily a tourist boat or for those with more money than the average local wage count afford.

When we arrived outside Luang Prabang, a boat of irate tourists next to ours told us not to get off the vessel. "It's a scam! They need to take us into the city at the right pier!"

They had all sorts of threats and loud words for these local people they deemed awful scammers. Alberto and I looked at each other a bit confused at their behaviour. We waited for the Laotian passenger with his daughter to talk to the captains. He came back and told us that it was the last stop and we needed to get off before he left.

We stayed in a few moments of the "sit-in" protest in indecision before we finally decided we might as well just take the transportation to the city. If the company was corrupt, it was corrupt and we needed to adjust. Getting up in arms about it wouldn't change the fact that we were still outside Luang Prabang.

When we got to the tuktuks, the company tried to get us to pay in advance, which was not the protocol anywhere and I knew it. I was frustrated with this and expressed my feelings. In response they threw our bags off the luggage rack and onto the ground, saying they'd take other customers instead.

Charming.

We clearly had no other options. Alberto, worried about my stubbornness, told me he could pay for both of us and I could pay him back in the city. I told him it was alright and we ended up paying the price before the arrival anyway.

The driver swerved all over the room, I assumed because he got a rise out of seeing us uneasy. The slow boat tour ended up being one of the worst scams I had encountered so far, not being upfront about the fact that we'd share a room (even lying about it) and not actually taking us to the destination for a high price. I had no idea how to avoid it as they seemed to be the only company I found for that excursion.

The Americans in our tuktuk were still fuming about the whole ordeal. They kept going on about how the experience would ruin their whole night and now they didn't even feel like going out to party. Quel dommage! Alberto and I bit our lips and tried not to laugh at their over dramatics.

Later he asked me if I also cringed when I met Americans. I had to start laughing first.

"Umm, a little bit since they're very insistent on things being done a certain way and have those expectations. But to be fair, sometimes when I think someone is American because of their attitude, they end up being Canadian. We're just as bad at times."

"They're so loud too!" Oh Alberto.

 I didn't like to generalize and I certainly had American friends that didn't fit those stereotypes at all. In fact, they were incredibly interesting and open minded people who contributed to or started great discussions. But, Americans did garner a certain reputation for being difficult and obnoxious when they travelled.

At the guesthouse our group eventually settled on, we ended up sharing rooms again to save money. I saw a single bed within a shared room and jumped on it like it would run off. Once everyone had settled in, it ended up being Alberto and I sharing a room again. But at least I had my cozy single and he got the king sized. The rooms were far nicer too, such soft beds.

While I played away on the Wi-Fi, catching up with e-mails and Facebook, Alberto invited me out for supper with a couple other people. We all got baguette sandwiches at the market, a vegetarian dream! The French influence here pleased my taste buds and they even had cheese, a hard to come by food in those parts.

A Quebecois woman with South American roots stopped by our room with her German roommates. In French, she commented how she wouldn't mind sharing a room with the attractive Brazilian man. I had to stop myself from laughing with them as I had probably not been supposed to understand that. He was attractive, with a charming smile, close shaved hair and in pretty good shape.

We wandered up to the balcony on the second floor and chatted with a Polish couple, a French man and an older British man. Most of them seemed fun, but the older man told stories of being robbed by two young women he slept with in Africa (gee, wonder why). He also mentioned a few other wives he had in other countries and seemed to be looking for one here. Alberto was such an accepting person that he thought the whole conversation was interesting as was the man when chatted about it later in the room. I got a creep vibe from the British guy but kept it to myself.

We got to talking since I was far more conversational when I had my own bed. He had worked in Australia up until now and was taking his money to travel. The neat part about his life in Australia was that he didn't know English when he arrived and after four years he could speak it to the point where I had no idea it was a recent language for him. I was curious about his work experience and he said that jobs were very easy to come by.

He worked in a city and noted that the Australian people would go into work late and he thought okay maybe they were staying later. The workers took an early and extended lunch and finally took off from their jobs much earlier than the average. He laughed. "If you can work more than that, getting a job is easy. Australians don't want to work. Just party."

The conversation migrated to my life in Thailand and in particular my relationships and sex life out there. That was a subject that even with my close girlfriends wasn't my favourite topic to discuss. Call it my awkward point. But I wanted to be more open as a person and I had to start somewhere. We went through how relationships just didn't really fly in Thailand for me nor did I ever feel too inclined to date with my co-workers, just not the right personalities.

I, in turn, figured it would be polite to ask about his sex life while he did migrant work in Australia the past four years. He expressed that he wasn't too fond of the younger Australian girls as they all seemed to be all over the place with their life and couldn't control their partying. I knew how that felt. He expressed he preferred older women.

"What do you think about friends with benefits?" he asked.

And because I was in denial or just plain thick and awkward, I started babbling on about how in theory it could work as long as there were either no feelings on both ends, or equal feelings on both ends.

"So no feelings, want to try?"

"Oh." Words escaped me at this point. I was supposed to be the young all over the place woman he wasn't into. All I could think of was, "I'm good, thanks," as if he had just tried to offer me a glass of water or something. Could I be any more awkward?

"Sorry, just thought I'd ask. You seem pretty cool and you're cute. If you change your mind, my bed's open." He patted the large bed.

I probably shouldn't have chuckled to myself, but it was a defense mechanism. "Okay, thanks. Have a good night."

I pulled the covers up around me and fell asleep soon after that.