The french fries were awesome

December 23, 2019

Pak Chom to Sangkhom

Dear little friends,

We’d had a nice time in Pak Chom, did a bunch of writing, gazed out at the beautiful Mekong, slid around our tiled room, whose floors had given way a bit and were canted just enough for every step in there to feel like you are slightly drunk. All the fun without the hangover/liver damage!

It was a longish ride (for us) to Sangkhom but we were looking forward to it, we have very happy memories of our little jungle hut at Bouy Guesthouse that many other bicycle tourists have also stayed at. Reading the recent reviews made me wonder if all was well at Bouy, though.

It really is a lovely ride along the Mekong in these parts. Distances are not far, hills are moderate for the most part, and the river is our companion, with restful-looking grassy islands. The main channel switches sides and we watched for wooden Lao passenger boats because we had seen one in Pak Chom. In 2008 we took a passenger boat in Laos from Paklai to Vientiane on this very stretch, it was a very long day and the boat was too crowded to get back to the toilet area (toilet being an elastic term here, it hung over the river) so the we didn’t drink any liquid all day and with every motorcycle and enormous truck tire added to the cargo area the boat dipped down ever closer to the water. But we still have fond memories of boat trips on the Mekong although my kidneys disagree.

It’s simply one gorgeous view after another of the Mekong on this route.

The water level has dropped considerably in the previous 36 hours.

A cow keeps the weeds down in a papaya orchard.

But the water had dropped drastically during our time in Pak Chom, from full pool to at least ten feet lower, thanks, Sayaburi Dam! I can’t even imagine what this does to the fishery. And we saw no boats. But then, there is a new road on the other side and it seems paved since we aren’t seeing huge clouds of dust boiling up like we did last time when it was still under construction. See, Myanmar? Even brokeass Laos can pave a road. Boats go out of fashion when roads appear. The boat we saw in Pak Chom may have been a hyper-local one for the sections where the road goes inland.

This stop had a ceremonial boat and a sculpture of a woman farmer. There is a small crematory across the road, more on that later.

Bruce felt strongly that his helmet is the perfect camouflage here.

This temple had an unusual teal metallic roof.

There is a rest stop with a giant fish sculpture, called Nong Pla Buek. Ol’ NPB is looking pretty faded since we last saw ‘er, but the wonderful thing at this rest stop was a truck with an old guy selling bottles of some sort of home remedies and playing some gorgeous morlam music on his loudspeaker. It feels good to be entering Issan, where this music was born. We’ll be hearing a lot more of it and that’s a happy thing.

As we made our way, we were noticing more and more new little resorts right along the river, some so new their parking lots were still dirt, often with platforms for camping with tents already set up. I wouldn’t be caught dead camping ten feet away from another tent, I’m from Montana and not even at a family reunion will I do that. But I appreciate the concept and that Thais are getting outdoors, albeit with a cute little coffee/bubble tea/strawberry shake shop on the premises. Some of these places are quite chi chi, with “glamping” written all over them. It was the middle of the day and without exception these places were all completely devoid of humans but maybe on the weekends they get some customers. I fear oversaturation may have happened, that and these places are far from the people who have money for glamping. Many Thais basically live in camping-like conditions as it is.

This new resort is still working on its landscaping, but I’m sure the units are clean and modern, and it has a great view of the river.

These tent platforms look a little too rickety for me, and that’s saying something.

If I had to guess, I’d say this is probably the highest-end “glamping” experience you can get in this area.

So we booked it along the road and arrived at Bouy around lunchtime or so. The little shacks across the ravine are no longer rented out, sadly. It’s not surprising because they were pretty decrepit even when we were there last but still, the end of an era. We settled for a bungalow and asked if there was food available. The owner apparently is out of town and a friend was valiantly sailing the Bouy ship, she nodded vigorously and disappeared. We unloaded the bikes and made our way to the table area and scrounged up a menu. Things were rattling in the kitchen. We hadn’t ordered anything yet!

This is the bungalow we did stay in, which we were underwhelmed by.

Two backpackers arrived and were greeted. One of them had stayed at Bouy 23 years ago! She waxed nostalgic with us and then two plates were set down in front of us with three weiners, some white toasted bread, a fried egg, and some french fries on each plate. With the exception of the fried egg we wouldn’t have ordered these items in ten million lightyears, but we were hungry, there was plenty of ketchup (something I crave in Asia) and we just went with it and ate.

The french fries were awesome.

After our lunch we crossed the incredibly shaky bridge to check out the shacks and get more depressed about entropy and change. Things are dry this year and many beautiful plants were gone so now it’s just our memories that we get to keep. You can’t really expect a funky wooden free-spirited hippie place to remain in this climate, both from weathering and a change in the economy. Thais mostly seem to like new modern guesthouses, they aren’t going to put up with the plastic bag wrapped around our faucet to supposedly stop the leaking and the air conditioner badly in need of repair. Once the downward spiral starts it accelerates and I would be very surprised if Bouy is still in business two years from now.

This bridge seemed even more fragile than when we last saw it but I thought it was my imagination. Then we compared it to our old photos of it, and yes, it definitely has a new sway to it. I can’t believe we carried our bikes across this five years ago.

Everything changes. This little shack was covered with beautiful flowering vines when we stayed here. There was a row of banana trees next to the river, and there was no promenade. You can’t really keep these places going indefinitely unless you are willing to completely rebuild them every few years and I have a feeling this sort of building, at least for accommodations, is not legal anymore.

It’s all part and parcel of the dispiritedness we have sensed since we entered Thailand weeks ago in Mae Sot. This is not a condition limited to Thailand by any means, it was so palpable in Myanmar in 2008 it was painful. We hope things can pull up and out of this malaise but history will write itself on this, I fear.

We knew there would be a smallish evening market very nearby and when we set out to check it out we discovered it was about ten times larger than last time, and it’s a good market for a town of poor-ish people, lots of fresh vegetables and meats, perfect for home cooks to take home for dinner. Sadly we aren’t home cooks while in Thailand although we’d love to be given the very high quality of ingredients. There was nothing for us to eat so we trudged down the road looking for a restaurant and failing. BUT, I saw a weathered sign with faded photos of different dishes next to a chainlink fence and there was a small restaurant with a woman crouched looking at her phone. She whipped out some Larb and sticky rice for Bruce and pad khrapao for me and it was excellent, just what we wanted.

Grilled fish for takeaway at the market.

The lottery ticket sellers are everywhere. Frankie informs us that big drawings happen on the 1st and 16th of every month, and sometimes the 30th.

Don’t worry, we didn’t have to eat chid for supper but we were definitely tempted.

We knew one thing, we weren’t going to hang in Sangkhom another day, like we had initially planned. Our visas run out December 30, we have to go to Vientiane on or before that date, we are on bikes and can go when and where we like. Last time we did the very long ride to Nongkhai in one day and this time we decided to break it up and stay somewhere nice along the way, wherever that might be.

The freedom to come and go as you please when you’re on bicycles is one of the most addicting aspects of it, in our minds. We are getting stronger and fitter, have moved out of the big mountains and can finish rides before the afternoon heat blast, and we love this area despite changes that would have happened whether we were there to see them or not. If we think things are going to stay the same just because we like them a certain way we are going to be depressed all the time. The fact is, we’ve stayed in some lovely new places, have talked to more Thais because English fluency is increasing in the population, and you know what? The papayas are still delicious. It’s okay. We keep going.

You know something good about Bouy Guesthouse? The free breakfast, this delicious jok that came with all the right toppings and a Nescafe.

Today's ride: 39 miles (63 km)
Total: 692 miles (1,114 km)

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