A Very Late Night Paddle

JB had wanted to go for a toilet break since we started paddling at around 5am. He reminded me again at Sai Yok but I forgotten to stop. Ee were so rush for time today that we had not landed or stop paddling. As we found out the river was meandering wildly, and making estimation of distance difficult. I had estimated a flow speed of 5km/hr and a paddle speed at 10km/hr. By that estimate we should have covered quite a distance since we started, but the GPS still showed that we had only covered 30km with 60km more to go.

If that was true we would have to paddle till midnight to reach our stop point for the day !

Finally at 6pm JB exploded.

I had called out to JB and said to him again, that we might have to paddle into the night to make up for the distance. But I left the door open for an early night if we happened to find a boat house.

"Like last night.", I said.

"I want lights, rooms, proper toilet. I am not cooking tonight." JB was firmly in his seat.

"But we need to have a cut-off...", I tried to reason but was cut off.

"I don't care if we paddle until midnight to find proper accommodation. We had decided to paddle at night, so lets not do things halfway.", JB replied in egoistical defence.

All we had eaten the whole day was a few bars of chocolate and a smoked coconut. We were both edgy. Such arguments were familiar to me. Chan and myself used to have such arguments, but we had developed an understanding of the meaning of 'doing distance'. This was really the first time I am paddling with JB and doing distance. The truth was that we needed to paddle 90km today, and this could only be done by disciplined paddling. 1 hour paddle 5 minutes break, and repeating this cycle until we got the distance covered.

In any case we should have stopped for a toilet break or lunch or dinner, and that was my fault since I had planned today's long route. So I went along with his plan as a sign of apology.

Paddling The Moonlite Path - We followed the glow of moonlight reflected off the water during our night paddle. We were constantly worried that we might fall over a waterfall !         photo: Huey

The night was cold. There was little wind. As we paddled swarms of insects hit our faces like rain. So many of them must be flying around in darkness we could not see. Sometimes they just stick to the sunblock lotion on our faces. I was lazy to stop paddling and swiped them off. For the first time I wished my face had the folds and wrinkles to bump them, instead I catatonically tried to shake or blow them off my face.

I realized that moonlight was so important for night paddling. No moon and we would simply not see a thing. Tonight a crescent moon gave a good enough glow to create a shinning pathway on the river, separated by the shadows of trees. In this way we paddled along, my eyes focused on avoiding paddling into the shadows of the trees. We slithered with the river on Kanchanaburi land.

At some moments, my thoughts were on what my friend said to me when he heard I was paddling down river kwai.

"A lot of people died there leh..", he told me.

How many? 250, 000 was the figure given by wikipedia on their article on the death railway. We did not hear any wailing of their souls on the river. In the distance we sometimes heard bursts of gunfire, as this would be about the region where the Singapore military do part of their overseas training.

But by far the most bizarre sound we heard was the blasts of karaoke music breaking the immaculate silence of the night. Extremely loud music was being pumped from some unknown stations. We were cold and hungry and the music, however bad, was like callings to a better night. We quickened our pace as the music reached ear-splitting level, but we could not see the source. Suddenly a male voice strained above the music, cried out in a terrible forlornness for and of love. And all living things shuddered.

Where could we stay tonight? JB had rejected an abandoned boat house. On another occasion I had scampered up the bank to check out a tycoon's house, which came complete with a gazebo of fluffy pillows and drinks. There were no one around…and we had thought of just borrowing it for one night. Afterall we were in rich-land. Some big houses were obviously partying Saturday night away. Perhaps they wanted some exotic guests to spice up their parties? I pulled alongside one, was politely told it was a private party, and adviced that they might be some accommodation, somewhere in the darkness infront. If we were just paddled along now.

And we pushed on again. JB followed the lightstick on my kayak. I paused for a drink and light snack. We must find something soon or we will paddle for the whole night. I asked for the time.

"10pm Thai time.", JB said indifferently.

Cold, dark, hungry, with no lights in sight, and paddling for the past 16 hours without land rest, I wondered how this night was going to end.

<<Continued...>>