TRAVELMAN LAOS: The slow boat down the Mekong stops in Pakbang for the night.

I grabbed my bags and walked off the boat. The town road was uphill. The owners of the guest houses lined the road, standing in front of their businesses offering their services. Figuring that the price would drop the further I walked from the dock, I lugged my bags past the initial offers.

I picked a place that looked decent. It was a private room for 7 USD. I dropped my bags in the room and walked into the adjacent restaurant for a beer. My table had a view of the Mekong at sunset...

This is me trying to be David Fincher taking a photo. My room is to the left of the hallway. My windows looked into the restaurant...

After the beer, I explored the main road. I walked further up the hill first. After about a quarter kilometer the buildings began to peter off. I looked into a bar called The Hive Bar, no one was inside. Two guys I recognized from the boat walked by me. We struck up conversation. They were heading to meet others to eat and invited me to join. They were M (short for Emyrus) and Sam. M was from Manchester and had a talent for speaking without a filter. He also had a talent for pointing out your better qualities while in conversation. Sam was born of Chinese parents, was Dutch, and spoke with an American accent.

We walked a bit and met up with the others. Seven of them were staying in a guesthouse. Two young Dutch women, Merta and Joyce, had negotiated down the price for the group... They each saved about fifty cents. The negotiation gave Merta and Joyce the title of "The Negotiators" for the remainder of our time together.

We didn't walk far before a restaurant owner asked us to choose his fine establishment. It only took us a few seconds of hemming and hawing before he offered us two different types of free whiskey. Sold!

We asked him what kind of whiskey. He said, "Reasonable Whiskey." One made in town, and the other from another town in Laos. We sat and ordered drinks. Most of us ordered BeerLao. We were a group of around ten and the restaurant family was not prepared for such good fortune. This meant the wife had to run out and by more beer from the market down the street. In the meantime, the husband served us the bottles of whiskey, from recycled plastic water bottles. We thought we were to each get one shot a piece but he left the bottles on the table.

Bravely, I was the first into the breech. I poured a healthy shot of the lighter colored whiskey and downed it. It was not the best, but not the worst, and it had a bit of a kick. Reasonable.

Paul was one of the gentlemen in our group and the next to try it. He was from Ireland and Australia so his accent was mixed to the point that people were entirely confused regarding his origins.

We had a grand ol' time eating and drinking reasonable whiskey. We were getting ready to leave when the owner requested with enthusiasm that we finish the whiskey. Who were we to say no? This helpful list hung on the wall near our table...

We decided to head up the street to the hive bar. Guess what was free there? Whiskey! Some of it was clear and someone said it was a banana whiskey. I didn't know you could make whiskey with bananas, and still don't entirely trust that this is the case.

In the Hive Bar we ran into about ten more people from the boat. There was beer pong, I both won and lost. My partner during one game was the party man, Gary, from Uruguay. He wanted everyone to party like it was 1999 so he was buying a lot of us drinks.

Bart and Christiaan were at the dinner and The Hive. They were both Dutch, funny, and great to hang with the next few days. Here's Christiaan shooting pool. (I discovered Europeans play eight ball with slightly different rules.)...

I stumbled back to my room while some of the fellow boaters kept the night going. It was a crazy night filled with new people and fun. The next day on the boat was even better. It's fun to meet a boat load of people. Next post: A Magical Mystery Tour...on a boat!

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As always, thanks for stopping by and we hope you enjoyed the show. Please retrieve all of your belongings and exit to the rear.

Please upvote, resteem, and try to make your child's first word be TRAVELMAN!

!steemitworldmap 19.8889 lat 102.1276 long Overnight in Pak Beng down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang d3scr