Going
into the water, it felt warm and non-threatening.
Like other rivers it was a muddy bottom and there
was no visibility. Open your eyes under water, all
you see is brown sludge. I started swimming out at
a relaxed pace. So far so good. I kept my head out
the water and adopted a modified crawl stroke so I
could concentrate on the focal point of the Laos shore.
I did not want to drift off course. I was aiming for
a piece of land next to the boat dock and it was about
one kilometer across. The spot of land I was aiming
for was a grassy outpost that would allow me to climb
up and take a brief rest, allow my wife to take a
photo of me across the river from the soon-to-be-distant
Thai shore. Then I would swim back.
Bold Entry |
The
journey started out okay, a non-threatening, easy
swim. I was swimming for about five minutes, and could
feel what I thought was a gentle current. I didn’t
look back. I had probably swum about 50 meters out.
I felt that my instincts were correct and people were
exaggerating the difficulty of the swim. It was then
that I decided to look back, and this was the beginning
of my undoing.
Looking
back to the Thai shore I realized that I had drifted
about 200 meters down river past my point of entry.
I was way beyond the Mut Mee guesthouse, past the
Wat (temple) next to the guesthouse and was already
way beyond the Thai immigration pier. This meant that
the current was carrying me down river at about four
times the rate that I was swimming across the river.
That meant that if I reached the Lao side at the current
rate I was swimming at, I would be about 4-5 kilometers
down river. Swimming back from the Laos side I would
end up in no man’s land about 10 kilometers
from down river from my point of entry. No one would
be there to meet me. I had no money and no passprt,
only my shorts. I would look like a lunatic on the
side of the road, waterlogged, muddy and exhausted,
when I crawled out of the water. Maybe this was not
such a good idea after all.
The
currents were stronger than I thought. I thought that
I’d better turn around and re-think this plan.
I changed direction and began swimming back to the
Thai shore. It was at this time that I began to feel
the full strength of the current sideways. I looked
back at the Thai shore. There were numerous Thai people
on the shore who were all looking at me with looks
of concern bordering on panic. I imagined them thinking,
“That foreigner is about to die and I have a
good seat for the show.”
As
I struggled to make it to the Thai shore, the current
was moving so fast that it was difficult to see any
progress. I just kept on getting pushed down river
and my swimming strokes seemed futile compared to
the force of the Mekong current. I didn’t seem
to be getting any closer to the shore but I kept getting
pushed farther down river. I tried to recall the advanced
life-saving course I took many moons ago to become
a qualified lifeguard, and reminded myself that all
I had to do was stay calm and keep a moderate pace
and sooner or later I would reach the shore. The Thai
people staring at me from the shore, with their mouths
open with astonishment, offered little assurance.
There were no lifeguards around and no one was preparing
a rope to throw to me. I was the day’s entertainment,
the crazy foreigner who died in the Mekong.
Page
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