Dear Morning Fog,
Sorry I had not reported to you sooner. But we are already in Pak Choum and touring the south side of this farmy city.
Overlooking the Mekong is Laos.
Memories of our past came on as Steaming Bell and I look silently onto those woodlands yonder.
Steaming Bell recalls his family competing in Long Cheng for some free airplane rides to Thailand. His family was among those who first lined up and got onto the first plane in mid-May 1975. He said he remembers seeing lines and lines of people chasing the plane as it was running on the airstrip as well as those who were still making their ways down the mountainsides to the airfield.
Within just a few hours, the plane landed in an old military camp in Thailand. I thought that was Ban Vinai. But he said it had a different name like some kind of water or lake. I have never been there, so I don't know. My family came straight to Ban Vinai, where you are now. And that's the only camp I know of.
Steaming Bell's family then got onto a free bus ride to Ban Vinai before my family made it there. You can tell us more about how your family settled there when we get to you.
But my family was one of the first groups that crossed the Mekong on an old canoe, operated by two young fishermen under the order of an older local Thai village chief.
"It was dark, shortly after a rainfall last night," my maternal grandfather told the Thai officials who were checking us out at that remote Thai farm south of Pak Choum. "We can't tell what they looked like. They were fishing, and we just asked them to canoe us across."
Four of the five well-dressed Thai cops were not convinced. So, one asked if we paid those smugglers anything.
"No. It was all free," my dad said. "See? Our silver bars all still here."
Then a five officer said, "Oh. You know, my colleagues, if it was after the short rainfall, then it was already dark. They couldn't have seen what anyone looked like so clearly."
All seemed convinced and invited us to their office for some immigration paperwork. But my father told them that we were waiting for someone to bring foods for us kids and that we couldn't go yet. They just left us alone after saying we should report to them wherever we were going.
A Hmong couple from Ban Vinai happened to be making some Thai Bahts at a nearby Thai farm. The man saw us and came to talk to my elders. Then he used a few of the Thai Bahts he had earned so far and took a Tuk-Tuk to Ban Vinai to fetch some of our relatives there.
Within two hours, our relatives arrived with a songtheo and we got on for the camp.
Subsequent stories about other families crossing here were horrible, Morning Fog! Grannies and grandpas and some babies got washed downstream. One guy said his relatives created a raft and everyone got on. But at night in the middle of the river, a strong current hit the raft down a few thatches in length. Two people fell off and they could not be found again. Another guy's family was fortunate to have some tubes to ride on. There were six of them, so they had strung three tubes together each and tried to cross in two groups. One leading person was not strong enough to drag the two behind him through; they dragged him down instead. So, that family lost all three of those.
There were many more that our memories are now fading on. So, I can't tell you all of them.
But one impressive group came with about 150 families. Just imagine how many people there were, since each family was made up of between 3 and 12 persons, one guy told me.
Leaders of this group had guns they kept that the CIA had abandoned in Laos. So, they had made their ways through the jungles for several months, foraging as well as scouting every valley and mountain before letting the large group go through.
A motor boat much like a pontoon with one Lao and one Thai fishermen on was coming down the river.
The leaders with guns arrested them and ordered them to transport everyone across the Mekong.
After several hours of night work, everyone got over to Thai shores.
The two pilots asked to leave.
"No," said one of the leaders with a rifle in hand. "Wait just a minute. Your work is not over yet."
They were shaking to their feet, unsure of what to expect, both fearing for their lives more than ever.
The leader then took two empty burlap sacks and went around to all of the smugglees.
Soon those bags were full of money.
The leader brought those back to the pilots, handed one to each and also instructed that they could share the values equally.
"You can go now," he said.
Morning Fog, Steaming Bell wants to stay here for a few more days before we get over to Vinai. But we'll be seeing you real soon.