Page 38 - NOMADS_NO5

37We all met in Bangkok and travelled by train up to the Laos border. In Laos we hired a local boat and driver to take us down the Mekong, to a huge waterfall close to the Cambodian border. In Kratie, Cambodia, Bruce a fluent Lao speaker, negotiated with a local fisherman to purchase a small wood- en fishing boat for $180.00.The engine on the boat was a 3.5 horse- power long tail. It looked like a lawn mower on a stick. We named the boat The Tainted Nipple, after a cautionary news story we read in a Bangkok newspaper about Thai sex workers, who had been robbing cus- tomers by applying knockout drugs to their nipples. We all agreed the boat’s name was appropriate, as the trip we were embarking on was sketchy at best.