Fili’s world

“Clementine: What are you? NUTS?
Joel: It’s been suggested.”
(Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)

There’s Matt and Carly, the Israeli horde, and the two-ladyboys-and-two-lesbian bunch(AKA - ‘weird bunch’). That’s the people I now know from my bus ride from Vientiane to VangViang. The Israeli group was sitting between the weird bunch at the back of the bus and me at the middle. I soon adopted my secret non-Israeli identity and eavesdropped on the group the whole way. It was funny and embarrassing at the same time and I was praying to god that no one understands anything they were saying or associating me with them. They went on and on about their latest Bangkok fuck-fest with some Thai ladies, showing nude pictures to each other from the digital camera and cursing the hell off the weird bunch, luckily - mostly in Hebrew. They were nasty and nothing would shut’em up. On the bus rest I got to know British Matt and Carly, with whom I had a great time that evening getting absolutely wasted on their riverview balcony, and the weird bunch that wanted to take a picture with me - maybe because I was the only one nice to them.
I think one of the ladyboys fancied me ’cause they all chose to stay at the same Guesthouse I was in and took the same tubing-rafting-trekking tour as I did the next day. Naturally, I was amused and fascinated by the whole thing. The trek day was hilarious and great fun. The whole area - mountains raising over rivers, big caves with hidden water streams - is magical.

The horrific sound of the artificial giggles reaches the ears well before hitting the street. Some would love the gesture, appreciate the honor that a distant land gives it, admire the tribute that 3rd world bestows upon western life. ‘Falang, farang’, they whisper inside their homes, but even they know that the slang-words have lost any meanings, as do the people they are trying to describe.
Shani would love it here, is what I keep thinking seeing the phenomenon. All major restaurants on main street play re-runs of “Friends” series. All of them. If you’d be here for two weeks, it just might be possible to see the whole 10 years. Ross and Rachel find true love, then lose it, then take care of the baby. Chandler and Monica get together, Joey and Pheby doing their same stuff over and over again. It took me a while to realize that I actually know most of the episodes, and some I manage to say the script before it’s been played. And we watch it, over and over again, the people we are, laughing our selves mad, loving every second.

I was ready to leave here today, for some unknown reason. A surface analysis without background check would determine that I’m bored. I’m not sad, I’m not having a bad time, quite the contrary, but it’s all making me tired. Meeting new people I like always gives me a thrill, doing new stuff brings excitement and sometimes even joy. Yet, it is never enough, it doesn’t fill up.
But I stayed, since I knew not what lies ahead and I did know I like this place. Yeah, meet some more people, see some more ‘Friends’, watch some movies, drink a couple’o more LaoBeers, you’ll have a good time.
An hour after leaving the room I discovered that the yearly Rain Rocket festival is due here today, and if I were to leave then I would have missed it. God forbid I am to miss something, since missing something is a backpacker’s worst nightmare. Lao people banging drums on the street, small children carrying baby-missiles, a ‘big’ festival - Lao standards - just across the river after crossing the soon-to-collapse-macabbia-like bamboo walk-bridge. A Coconut juice with two Germans and a girl from Belgium and about a hundred rocket-launches later and I marked the X next to the “see an authentic Lao festival” box and went to choose a movie at the movie place. Chicken Pad Thai, some shakes, a Pepsi, two long movies, another bored-as-hell-doesn’t-know-what-to-do-with-him-self British guy. Let go sit on the Internet for a while, maybe we’ll find some new wonderful destination to amuse ourselves.

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