Shoreside shop (and tow)

We tried to go out on our boat yesterday, but about 1km up the river the engine disengaged and we were unable to get in gear. After a rather frightening few moments of floating backwards in a strong current towards a floating village with no success in getting our anchor to grip the river bottom, we magically came to a stop.

A farcical ten minutes ensued, while Berry and I tried to row the boat (using what were essentially sticks) and Monique tried to raise the anchor. Only to find the reason we had magically stopped before was because our anchor was now caught in the ropes of a floating bungalow. Luckily the hotelier on the floating bungalow took pity on us and threw us a rope, which Berry had to swim to get and I had to hang on to while the 40 pound Cambodian dragged us in to shore, with me as the deadweight on the other end.

Eventually we were rescued by this smiling man on his boat/ shop and we huddled inside with the pickles, eggs, cigarettes, huge assortment of snacks and buckets of entrails while he took us back to the ferry.

Who let a pair of barangs be in charge of a boat on the Mekong?