I am writing today with a bit of sadness. It is my last day in Laos and I've been thinking about how I would sum it all up. Firstly I have to say that it has been the best experience so far and I'm pretty sure that it will be best overall. How can one say which has been the best bit? They all have their individual bits that have imprinted on my memory like a photo with attitude. I am sure that like last time I will remember the smells as well as the sights. I can't compare in a rating way the wonders that were Nong Khiaw, Luang Prabang, Phonsavan and the jars or "The Loop" and now to add to these there is Tat Lo and the Boleven and of course the nirvana that is Don Det and the River Garden Guesthouse. Through all of this there has been the constant that is the Angels, Erica, Emily and Sandra. My lovely companions through all the stuff that happened. We would bump into each other as if by Kismet. It all stared with the bus from Sapa where I first met Erica. Then it was the bus from Diem Bien Phu that I gelled with Emily and Sandra. From then on we shared experiences and meals, catching up with our various individual stories. We were together through Nong Khiaw and Luang Prabang and parted when I went to Phonsavan. Together again in Vientiane we planned "the Loop". There was a sad parting in Thakhek and lo and behold I bump into them in Tat Lo! Then we had our final, last meal at my guesthouse on Don Det 2 nights ago. I will always value their company and will never forget our shared time. They are the lovliest most gorgeous women I have met excepting of course for my partner and my children. I feel a bond with them as close as I have had with any of my dearest friends and I wish that I will see them again sometime. I plan to keep in contact thanks so much google!
I think I should also just write out the last few days here around Pakse. I hired a bike for three days and spent one going to Champasak and Wat Phu (see previous blog). The next day I headed into the Boleven. There was a pause on the road to see waterfalls in the grounds of a Thai resort. It was a bit too touristy for me. In addition the tourists were Thai people. As much as i hate to generalise, the rich ones seem to be right arseholes. One silly bugger, as I was crossing a bridge yelled in a very loud voice "Oi you! i take photo of you beside my wife". I said "no mate take your own bloody photos!" and just kept walking past him. he was so shocked that I had not immediately complied. I felt very angry. How dare this prick treat me like an object. i felt that he was incredibly rude and spent the next 5 minutes thinking up suitable epithets and verbal abuse. he of course had passed on to the next photo without thinking. On reflection (an stimulated in this by Erica) I now know how the rest of the lao population must feel when I thrust my telephone in their direction for my own photos. abject lesson Lionel! Moving on I got to tat Lo about lunchtime and lo and behold there were the girls walking up the road as I arrived. after a chat they kept walking and I went across the bridge to find my room and some lunch. The room turned out to be right on the rivers edge beside the bridge looking up river at the first waterfall and down river to an idyllic view with people fishing, swimming and washing clothes and themselves. It was the stuff of a constable painting (if he ever travelled to SEA). That afternoon I went for a walk to the second waterfall up river. It was spectacular and very energising. I spent sometime watching this man with a fishing net squatting on a rock, immobile like a cormorant waiting for a fish to appear. The in a plsah he set the net on his arm and cast it into the maelstrom in front of him. he then dive into the pool to retreve the net and hopefully a fish. He was oblivious to the current and the wind from the falls. Unlucky this time he moved around the pool to another spot to resume his vigil. Fantastic! i felt so privilidged to be there at that time.That night we dined on the varandah in front of my room and talked till late. The next morning I made my farewells and motoered back to Pakse via Paksong. what struck me about the trip was the lack of trees all bombed or poisoned out of existance by the fucking americans. I had lunch at a very spectacular waterfall whose name escapes me at the moment. Back in Pakse I arranged a flight to Siem Reap and accommodation and then caught a bus to the 4 thousand Islands.
Don Det was very interesting. It seemed to me that there was 2 distinct parts. One I characterise as "babylon" after Bob Marley. Full of the detritus of Vang Vieng, stoned out idiots careless of the values of the Lao that they were trampling with thier obnoxious behavior. The other side was an earthly version of Nirvana. I was lucky I found a guesthouse in Nirvana and spent most of my time swying in a hammock on the varandah of my hut swilling on a steady run of banana and lemon shakes. I worked out that if you sip from the top of the glass it is full of ice and is very cold - instant headache! It was so peaceful and relaxed and laid back. you did not need the aid of drugs to feel totally out of it but in a respectful way. On my third day I managed to stir enough to go over to Don Khone and visit the rapids that bar the Mekong at this point and to check out the disused railway built by the French to avaoid the rapids and estalish their power in Indochine. I went for a swim in a lovely little cove just down from the rapids and away from the current. It was ideal.
I had a last meal with the Angels at the guesthouse on my last night. We had a meal that couldn't be beat. Steamed fish with lemon and vegetables with cocnut milk. It was steamed in banana leaves and came out in a mouse like form. It was delicious, deleicate flavours of fish and kaffir lime with overtones of coconut milk. The next day it waws pakse and here I am. It is 10:35 and I have to be at the airportat11:30 so I will have to close now. I close my time in laos with a kind of sadness that has a certainty that I will be back. It is a strange and lovely place. The people I have met have been friendly, kind and helpful when they can be. Thank you laos and thank you angels.
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