Run To The Future

I'll start with the happy ending - I left Laos and went to Thailand. The End. I just wasn't ready to haggle when I got to Laos. In China, everyone is surprisingly honest, and no one tried to rip me off at all. So I crossed and the tuk tuk driver said he would take me to Luang Namtha for 200RMB. I had prepared myself to haggle in US$, so it took me by surprise and I just just said "fuck it, yes". Big mistake, probably could have got it for 50RMB? Or 100 at the most. Fuck. I knew it was my own fault, but it got worse. I managed to tell him I really wanted to go to Houayxai (with the intention of getting a fast boat to Luang Phabang), so he took me to a "bus stop" in the middle of nowhere and I "haggled" a price for a minibus to Houayxai - $80US. Fuck. You should have seen the look on the driver's face. And he went around telling everyone about it. Fuck, that just made me feel so much worse, and he went on about it as he picked people up along the way. The drive was ok. The road is pretty good now, but it's fallen into disrepair in the middle sections across the mountains. So we got to Houayxai about 9pm and I was very tired. I told him to just take me to where the guest houses were. Suspiciously he took me to a specific guest house (one of those farang style guesthouses, which I generally find unpleasant), and not the start of the street, but I was very tired, so I just went in. Big mistake. It was run by an old (and evil, as it turns out) woman with pretty good English. The room was $10US which is fine, and I organised to get her to organise the speedboat ticket for me for the next day. The guide book (which is at least 4 years old) said $22US, and she asked for $50. I just accepted it (mistake!) thinking it has probably gone up in price. I had a meal, and immediately started feeling she was dodgy. Sometimes I don't trust my instincts because I think I'm being too critical or too paranoid. This was one of those occasions unfortunately. I won't bother going into details, but there was just a string of little things she did, both to me and to the other farang customers that made me feel uneasy. Anyway, I got up early (woken by rats in the walls) and got ready to go to the speedboat. She had arranged for a tuktuk driver to take me there. Fine. So once there the tuktuk driver bought the ticket for me - it was 340000kip, which is about $42US, so she was making $8US profit (minus the miniscule amount she would have paid the tuk tuk driver). Ok, so rip off not too bad. There was an Irish guy, Tom, waiting too and we started chatting, and he told me that these days they actually don't want to take farang on the speedboat any more, and we sat there and watched 2 speedboats leave with locals...but not with us. Then they told us "come back tomorrow". Fuck. I only wanted to take the speedboat because I wanted to get to Vientienne as fast as possible. Tom was pretty unimpressed with this and went and got his money back and fucked off. Good move because they didn't like it. The speedboat guys said to me "wait wait", so I waited. For what was I waiting? I considered just doing what Tom did and getting my money back (minus 60000kip that the old woman got out of me), and then going on the bus (I did not want to get stuck on the slow boat). Then suddenly the evil woman's driver turns up and says "no speedboat today!" and drives me back to her shithole guest house. "No speedboat today", she repeats. "You'll have to take the slow boat...tomorrow, and stay here one more night". Fuck. I was so angry because obviously they knew I wasn't going to be able to go on the speedboat. I said "no, give me my money back, I'm going on the bus". So here's the calculation. I had given her 400 000 kip. She gives me back 184 000 kip and says "quick quick you must go now!!". I'm pretty confused, flustered, and angry at this point. The tuk tuk driver then drives me to the bus station, and buys the ticket for me, and then demands 20 000 kip for the privilege of me being ripped off some more. So 400000 - 184000 - 110000 (for the bus ticket) means she made over 100 000 kip out of me. She told me the money was paying for the driver to the speed boat ferry and back! 100 000kip!!!!! should have cost 20000 for farang, and 10000 or less for locals!!! 100000 kip - that is the extra night she wanted me to stay! FUCK. I remember that morning she'd told me a story of some farang who was so impressed with how she had helped him, that he brought 12 of his farang friends to stay with her! That was the point of her story!! 12 more people to rip off!! She would bark continually at her staff, and sat there like an evil spider, watching everything, making phone calls, and continually counting her money! So I'm sitting at this bus station. It's fucking hot. I'm angry, and a bit depressed by all of this. And depressed by the fact the bus actually goes back to Luang Namtha, where I had just come from, and takes 10 hours to Luang Phabang (baring break downs) and another 8 to Vientienne. There are about 40 english tourists lounging around being touristy and english and I realised that what I had done was totally surrender control of my journey to some evil fucking woman. So I knew I couldn't put up with it any more. That there was an obviously choice staring me in the face. Fuck Laos, I'm crossing the river and going to Thailand. I ask for my money back for the bus ticket - they can only give me 70% they say. Fine I say, and I hitched my back pack and just fucking walked away, down the road, back to town. At least I felt I was back in control. It was hot and I was tired, but I knew I could just cross the ferry and I'd be in Thailand, and a bus ride from Chang Mai. From there, well, it didn't matter, as long as I wasn't in Laos. And then, something good happened. A young man on a motor bike offered to give me a lift. I asked how much I had to pay him. He said "nothing, I feel happy just to help". It was like a sign. As soon as I had made a decision and taken back control of my journey, then something nice happened. He was a genuinely nice guy from a poor family and he took me straight to the ferry. I then fought to give him 20000kip, which he didn't want to take, but did eventually - and I was so happy to give it to him. So not everyone in Laos is a cunt! Then I got on the ferry and crossed happily into Thailand.