-^-for posterity-^-

we drove in a tuk tuk. a tuk tuk is a small vehicle made out of a motorcycle that can somehow haul about 10 people and another 10 tubes up hills and down valleys without killing anyone. it's really amazing and we all hung on for dear life and some of us were trapped inside instead of being able to hang on the outside and breath in all the fresh mountain air. we smothered inside.

we arrived at the bank of a large river. the stones on the bank were the same stones i remember lining the edges of the branch creek that flowed near my home as a child. those stones were smaller but they were smooth and rounded. that river ran into the ocean. the river we were standing next to also ran into the ocean and it passed my home in vietnam along the way.

we took our shirts off and began to float down the river on pink tubes. the river was majestic and slow. the rocks were fairly easy to avoid and the sun was bright. we floated, talked and enjoyed being in the water, part of nature, like being back in the womb.

the trip was long, about three hours, and most of it was spent watching other tourists and admiring the beauty of the mountains we were passing under. the sky above was blue and there weren't many clouds. my favorite thing to do was to lean all the way back in my tube with the top of my head in the water and paddle in a circle with one of my hands. my perspective would change from a sharp, violently shaped mountain to a flat, peaceful river, to a stand of trees with a bright sun above and then back to the other side of the river again. i did this often and it was beautiful each time.

there were other tourists and they were fascinating. this is kind of a 'tourist economic zone' and, since most people don't come to laos to visit, it is very rural and rustic, two things that today's backpacker is looking for. this place draws anyone who wants to come and experience the world in its rawest form. it draws anyone who is looking for what life used to be like a few hundred years ago.

the most surreal part of the trip was the ending. we ended our three hour and change float down the mekong and we pulled up on a rocky shore. there were large beds sitting in the water with spell-bound tourists sitting and sipping beer. there was a small hill with chairs and palm-leaf umbrellas shading the area. there was a small log hovering above the water with 10 or 15 children jumping in and out of the water and yelling at each other. we were standing on rocks, rounded, like the rocks of my childhood. there were spiked mountains across the river and the sun was hiding behind one of them making it look specifically holy. we stood there and didn't say anything. we stood there in the middle and watched but couldn't hear anything. there were two giant speakers playing techno music with its hypnotic beat and piercing snare. we stood there, not hearing anything, watching the mouths of the children open and close, watching them splash into the water, watching the water flow beside us and watching people chat around us but we didn't hear anything. we were supremely separated from the world and the culture and had been placed on a film set or in a video game or in one of those situations that we have created for ourselves after meddling too much with technology and never allowing ourselves to be true and close to nature where we would really be able to experience life. we need to be closer to the source of it all.