The Ukrainian Refugees that Tried to Raft to Vietnam

Once upon a time, I was in Laos searching for a place to camp and hoping that I wouldn't get robbed like last time.. 

To my surprise I discovered that someone else was camping out too!  and even more surprising had also placed a sign at their camping spot which read "BUILDING THE BOAT FOR RAFTING TO VIETNAM". .. But you probably already knew that from the pic above. 

Impressed, I approached the man who was skillfully chopping, tying and preparing bamboo.  

It looked like a fine raft was coming along. 

A little later a woman appeared. They were a couple from Ukraine and had traveled to Laos from Ukraine. But their travel was a bit different than mine because they left due to political shit. They had hardly any money and had gotten there mostly by hitchhiking.

"we usually just eat fruit." She said, "it's kinda like a diet."  

I was surprised at how little they ate, considering I was the scrawny type that would probably die If I missed a meal. 

However, while exploring that night the woman happened to luckily find Russian-Laotians who invited us into their home for dinner and alcohol.   

When I left that town, the raft was built but unfortunately it wasn't floating. However, they were collecting many many plastic bottles to stuff underneath the raft hoping that it would work. 
  

Before saying goodbye, I added them on Facebook.. 

However, I did not hear from then again at all,

Until a year and a half later. I was back in America and suddenly got a message. 

To my surprise they said that they now lived near San Francisco. So, I traveled to see them. 

They told me that, to my surprise, they never got the raft to float after all. 

After Laos they went to Thailand and then to the U.S. embassy and applied for refugee visas. 

They were flown to L.A.  and told me that they had a grand total of $17 when they got to L.A. 

From there they hitchhiked to San Francisco and even got arrested on the way for camping.. 

Somehow they found jobs and got an apartment. 

And a super fancy car..

I'm really jealous of their outstanding willpower. I probably would've just panicked and died or become a thief. 

stones which leak something healthy into the water

They still seemed to be into weird "health" stuff like eating a lot of fruit as meals... really tons of it, because a lot is required to feel full.  

Although, the girl seemed to be more into it than the guy because he seemed to use me staying there as an excuse to eat lots of pizza. haha  

I asked him how could he normally handle eating like such and he replied, "a horse just eats grass but is big and strong"