OTY: People pay big bucks for vibrating beds. Mine came with the job. The huge towboat engines throbbed throughout the day and night, sending shock waves through the hull and superstructure. The vibrations set everything in rhythmic motion. I just needed to get in sync. With time I achieved a certain equilibrium. Rather than keeping me awake, the vibrations lulled me into a deep REM. It wasn’t quite like being rocked to sleep, more like being jiggled.

OTA: When our boat tied up for the night with lines attached to riverbank trees or to stakes driven into the sand banks, it meant our cabin was close to shore and the night sounds flooded the room. No engine noise, just crickets, frogs, bugs and unknown sounds from the edge of darkness. In the midst of the chorus, there was a time to reflect. I had my mid-cruise crisis. Why was I here in the universe, on this earth, in this country, moving upstream on the Ayeyarwady on a cushy bed in a well appointed cabin? Where were the answers? Silence was the response from the night. I had heart burn over concerns for the state of being of those around me. But then I meditated on eructation and all was right with the world…until breakfast.