This story has not many accompanying pictures but is pretty fun anyways…
At the beginning of the travel in Laos I did not know that camping is kind of illegal. Setting on the unexplored I was pitching my tent out in some rice fields next to a small stream. Sitting by thea fire in the clear cold night the stomach ached badly. I had to admit that the very same day I had probably gotten food poisoned by eating some soft boiled eggs. I managed to get into my sleeping bag and all shivering tried to doze off. The cramps were really bad and I was having cold sweat. At some point in the late evening when my eyes became sticky and sleep was covering the pains I noticed lights outside and heard some voices. I had no energy to open the tent to check what was going on but greeted my unknown visitors from the inside. Without understanding the language I understood that my presences outside was being awaited. I zipped the tent open and sliped my head out. Just looking at the flashlights I realized that I was dealing with a large company. The dude closest to my tent was insisting that I come out. I tried to explain them in my cave language hand signs that I`m sick and cant move much. They didnt care. And kept waving me to come out. I looked around and noticed two guys standing a bit further away with Kalashnikovs. Damn! That moment funny thoughts passed in my head. The dude closest to the tent was still insisting for me to leave my warm and cozy sleeping bag, while another one was sliding his index finger close to his throat. That did not look promising of a quiet evening. I got out all cramped out and counted the men. There was a total of 8, two of them heavily armed. They told me to pack up my stuff and come with them. I tried to argue but had very little energy in me. The world around was kind of spining and I was close to loosing consciousness. Damn eggs! So I had to roll-up the damp tent, the sleeping bag and all the rest. Took me around 20 minutes. The guys were impatient while I was trying to stay focused and not to forget anything. All the time packing up I held a machete in my right hand. To be honest I was ready to slice someone up if the need arose. With the bag on my shoulders and the cooking pot ringing on the side we started walking. 4 guys upfront, me, and the other 4 guys in the back. Front and back men being the ones with kalashnikovs. I was really bad. Walking on the little paths between the rice fields I was almost sure to fall into one of them as the spinning of the head continued. Soon we were out of the fields and climbing a hill. That was too much, no energy inside and drowsiness made me mad angry. I started saying to the guys that they should shoot me right here as I could not continue. Wondering how relatives would be made known of this fact I kept pointing at my chest and waving to the dudes with the semiautomatics. Soon all of them started laughing and that was the breaking point. I knew from their calm and friendly eyes that nobody was intending to shoot me. Still they insisted I keep on following them. Few minutes later I threw up. Everyone laughed. Yeah, damn funny! After some 20 more minutes we arrived to a small village where a local police representative wanted to see my passport and visa. There started another issue as they had never heard of a country called Lithuania and insisted of me telling my real citizenship. Never having heard of LTU they took the passport as a counterfeit one and were not happy. Good I had a world map with me. Showing them where Lithuania was didn’t help. The country name on the map did not correspond to the name on the passport as the map had been bought in Viet Nam. Realizing how ridiculous the situation was I collected my strength and snapped some pictures of my interrogators looking over the map. I even tried to sing the national anthem but it made only all of us laugh. They called the sheriff of the next village who had to come over and doublecheck my passport. While waiting for them I was only allowed to leave to throw up. After the police men from the other village had a look at my passport I was told that I had to stay in the village for the night. Being so weak I had no more strength to argue about the ridiculousness of it all and just camped out in front of the same place that served as a police station and a school at the same time. That night I slept little and the following days ate neither much. The stomach got better and I got left only with the memories of the infamous night. I learned for the next times to be well hidden when camping so no one could see my fire and cause more commotion than needed.
Anyone boiled eggs?
