so where've you been? 24 Chiang Khong, in northern Thailand

See, I was on the last few hours of a three day trip up the Mekhong in a longboat. (a slowboat, to be technical; on a river heading towards China - a slowboat to China!)

Most people head downriver towards Luang Prabhang. Typical me to head up.
After the delights of food poisonin in Nong Khiaw, I spent most of the trip lying on a tatami platform curled up with some hilltribe ladies who'd adopted me out of sheer pity for my dilapidated state, snoring loudly. To say the trip was painful was an understatement, but at least this time the boat didn't sink.

By juxtaposing my maps of Laos and Thailand, I could just about work out the geography of the Mekhong, and calculate when we reached Bokeo province, and the western bank of the river became Thai.

I hadn't much liked Thailand the first time I got there. Crappy, overrun, too many brits, germans and sex tourists, really. The warm friendliness of the Thai people was a reminder of what horrors my country had wreaked on theirs, mostly. But to come back to Thailand from somewhere less developed, shall we say? Heavenly.

The foreigners in the boat - one dutchman, one pole, one aussie, one canadian, ten chinese - were all gazing fondly at the Laos side, daydreaming about the simplistic rustic lifestyle we would soon leave behind.

Me, I couldn't stop looking west. Roads with a surface. Satellite tv. Chocolate cake. A range of foods. Hot water. Fruit smoothies. Electricity that isn't rationed. A choice of food. Books and newspapers. Street lights. Chemist's. Books! Chilli and spices. Cars. Coaches and trains - trains! Computers, cushions, sofas. Like a bloody mantra. All the way. Satellite tv.

Then I disembarked at Huay Xai, ten minutes after the last 'ferry' (read old man with a dugout canoe) left for Thailand.

Agggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh.