The Boatman’s Gift

This travel account by Pamela Michael, which is taken from A Woman’s Passion for Travel with Marybeth Bond and Pamela Michael as editors, features in B.Ed. 1^st Year’s General English book (Tribhuvan University). Here follow the key takeaways from the text:

1. Travel account of Pamela Michael, an American female traveler and writer

2. Visit to Luang Prabang of Laos, a landlocked country in southeast Asia; Luang Prabang was a former capital of Laos; now Vientiane is the capital

3. Three ways to reach Luang Prabang from Vientiane:

i) by cargo boat = a long (five-or six-day) trip and dangerous because of bandits

ii) by roadway through the mountains = very rough road and dangerous because of antigovernment rebels and thugs

iii) by airplane = flown by Lao Aviation, considered by some to be the world’s most dangerous airlines

4. Pamela Michael chooses to travel by airplane. She reaches Luang Prabang and visits around the town. As she visits and observes the people, places and things, she takes photos with her camera.

5. Taking photos is more than her hobby. It has become her habit, rather an obsession. She cannot visit or stay in a new place without taking photos.

6. A very famous limestone cave = located high up a limestone cliff at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Ou rivers. “The only way to reach there is to dock at a floating bamboo platform and then climb a set of roughhewn stone steps to the swallow-filled caves above.”

7. A boatman approaches her and entreats her to take her across the river to the cave. But, just then, she finds the batteries of her camera are dead, and she doesn’t have extra batteries. She panics. When she tells the boatman that her batteries are dead, he responds with, “But, Madam, your eyes are not dead.”

8. The boatman reminds Pamela Michael that she can still observe and take photos with her eyes which are not dead. This reminding is the gift of the boatman.