In this much - travelled world, there are still thousands of places which are inaccessible to tourists. We always assume that villagers in remote places are friendly and hospitable. But people who are cut off not only from foreign tourists, but even from their own countrymen can be hostile to travellers. Visits to really remote villages are seldom enjoyable - as my wife and I discovered during a tour through the Balkans.
We had spent several days in a small town and visited a number of old churches in the vicinity. These attracted many visitors, for they were not only of great architectural interest, but contained a large number of beautifully preserved frescoes as well. On the day before our departure, several bus loads of tourists descended on the town. This was more than we could bear, so we decided to spend our last day exploring the countryside. Taking a path which led out of the town, we crossed a few fields until we came to a dense wood. We expected the path to end abruptly, but we found that it traced its way through the trees. We tramped through the wood for over two hours until we arrived at a deep stream. We could see that the path continued on the other side, but we had no idea how we could get across the stream. Suddenly my wife spotted a boat moored to the bank. In it there was a boatman fast asleep. We gently woke him up and asked him to ferry us across the stream. The boatman got up, stretched himself and made ready to set off. He was a huge man, well over six feet tall, and broad in proportion, and his muscles bulged out of his shirt sleeves as he rowed. The boat glided smoothly across the lake and we got out on the opposite bank. We were about to walk away when the boatman called out to us. He said something in his local dialect which we could not understand, but he motioned to us to wait. He then went back to the boat and brought out a large tin box. He placed it on the ground in front of us and opened it. Inside were dozens of beautifully carved wooden animals. He had carved them himself, and they were all as different as the villagers whom we had left behind. The boatman wanted an exorbitant amount of money for them, but we had no choice but to pay up. After all, we had no idea how we could get back without his boat. We made our way back to the town as quickly as possible, but we were not in time to catch the bus for our next destination. So we had to hire a car and drive to the airport. The journey was long and tiring, but we were glad to be away from the Silent Village.