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Published: January 9th 2009
Riverside Bungalows
One dollar a night. Sabaidee! And Happy Canada Day!!!
I've been in the country for just one week... and by golly, it's true. The living IS easy in Laos!
I feel like I've gone from a zillion miles an hour to a snail's pace. There are no obnoxious honking horns. No kamikaze motorbikes aiming for me and no street hawkers trying to sell me anything I don't need.
There aren't enough 'ills' in chill to describe this place. It's partially because the people here are just different. And, partially because tourism to the country is so new, I reckon they haven't had time to come up with scams just yet.
The last time I wrote, I had just arrived in the capital city, Vientiane. This isn't like any capital city I've ever seen... the streets are torn up and muddy and... there doesn't seem to be anything to do here.... at all! I've found a lovely little coffee shop though. I've passed a few rainy hours reading and writing while sipping the best coffee in South East Asia. I've finally come into the rainy season.
Anyway, I met up with my friend Duncan from England. We met a few weeks
This is what you do...
...when there's nothing to do. Chop pineapple. back in Nha Trang. I was in a bar alone, celebrating having ditched the ditch pig and he came up and we started chatting. (Side note: the 'ditch pig' story has become a traveller's urban legend in Vietnam... it keeps getting passed on! I've heard the story -- my story -- from another traveller!!!) Anyhow... he was sorta on the same path as me - but a few days ahead. We agreed to meet up at some point if at all possible. Finally, we were able to catch up with one another here in Vientiane.
Dad, you'd be so proud. Last weekend, we spent a rainy Saturday afternoon in a pub frequented by ex-pats drinking Beer Laos and watching a rugby game -- England vs. NZ. I have no idea what the game was all about, but everyone in the bar seemed to care. NZ won. Duncan was not impressed.
The following day, we flew down to Pakse on the teensiest plane ever. Pakse is basically a one horse town, comparable to Tatamagouche. From there, we planned to get a bus to Si Phan Don, or Four Thousand Islands. This is the southern most part of the country,
nestled between Vietnam and Cambodia. It's where the Mekong River fans out to about 14 km wide and in the rainy season, creates thousands of little islands as the water level rises.
It's a jewel in Laos that few travelers get to see, because it's so far out of the way. (14 hours by bus, or 1 hour by plane plus a 4 hour bus ride.) Usually, it's only those who are passing through on their way to Cambodia who make the trip. Or those who want to do nothing but lay in a hammock.
But I digress.
So we arrive in Pakse, with less than an hour to spare until we had to catch our bus to Si Phan Don. We wrangled up a tuk tuk to take us to the station, about 8 km out of town. In any normal car, this would take minutes. But, in southern Laos, in a tuk tuk, with a driver who doesn't understand English -- and seems to think 'Hurry hurry, we're late!!' means 'stop and talk to everyone you know along the way,' this type of journey takes farrrrr longer than it should. Yup. First of all, these
Food hawkers....
Chicken and bugs on sticks. Yummm.... three-wheeled motorbike taxis sound like lawnmowers, and they go about as fast. But this short little Laos man honestly stopped and talked to everyone he knew along the street! The problem was, that everytime he stopped, he turned off the engine. And then it wouldn't start again! So, we'd have to jump out of the back and push while he tried to get the engine going. Then all of a sudden it would jolt, and take off and we'd nearly fall and have to jump in the back before it zoomed away. This was funny once. Or twice. Or even three times. But after, oh, say, 13 times? It was getting a little frustrating...! AND THEN, as we sputtered along the road, we noticed hundreds of locals lining the streets, staring up in to the sky, pointing, just like in that Sesame Street episode where all the characters are looking up into the sky.... We thought, by their reactions, and all the excitement, that a space ship was about to land or something... but no, it was just a few parachuters. I don't think the people of Pakse had ever seen such a thing. Our tuk tuk driver even got
all excited and stopped again in the middle of the road, and got up on the roof for a better view!!! Once again, we had to yell at him to go, and then the thing wouldn't start...and we had to get out and push again... and the thing took off and we had to run and jump in.
You think that's funny? It gets better.
We arrive at the 'bus station.' Now a bus station in any normal scenario would likely be a parking lot with a few big busses lined up. But nnnnnoooooooo. Not in Pakse. When we pulled into a big fat mud pit of a market, where people were selling everything from chicken on a stick to assorted unidentifiable deep fried bugs on a stick, I nearly lost it. There was our 'bus.' Similar to a flat bed truck, but a bit smaller, with a roof, open sides, open back and three wooden benches going sideways. Uh huh. And, it was painted in rainbow colors. And it was packed with about 37 locals. And a massive wicker basket of live chickens. (Side note: I've since become vegetarian). And buckets full of live fish. And bags
Map of Si Phan Don
Like I said... basic, basic, basic! of chillis. And cabbage. And coconuts. And rice. And boxes of sweetened condensed milk. I rested my feet on bags of romaine lettuce. This was most certainly NOT a tourist bus like in Vietnam. I wanted off the beaten track? By geeze, I got it. And then some.
The drivers packed us all in, along with all the goods. I realized that humans aren't much different than any other cargo in this country. The basket of chickens went on top. But a few loose chickens were tied up by the feet inside the bus, errr, truck, with us. I felt badly for the poor English girl who had to sit with them. She got chicken poop all over her shoes. The 'bus' was so packed, some people even hung from the back. The driver asked a few of the western guys if they wanted to sit on top with the chickens and the luggage and the coconuts. They opted not to. I don't blame them.
And you know what? I think we were lucky. I saw another 'bus' heading in the opposite direction with a bloody GOAT on the roof. I couldn't grab my camera fast enough.
Happy in a hammock!
Those are my feet. Duuuuh. So...for four hours, we sputtered along the dirty dusty roads dropping folks and deliveries off along the way. Live fish flipped and flopped as we hit the bumps. I so wanted to see one of them fly out of the buckets, just for entertainment's sake. A local man slept on my shoulder...and there was nothing I could do about it.
The bus would stop every hour or so, and food hawkers would come to the 'windows' and try to sell us more chicken/frog/who knows what on a stick, sticky rice and corn.
Remember, the sides are open, so they can shove this stuff right in your face so you're almost forced to buy it to get them to leave you alone.
This experience may or may not have sent me home crying a couple of months ago. But now I know it's all part of the experience. 😊
We arrived at Si Phan Don, dirty, sweaty and stiff. (We did not move... no bathroom breaks, no breaks to stretch, nothing.) There were long tail boats along the edge of the river waiting to take the few backpackers who made the trip to one of two islands that
have villages: Don Det and Don Khon. We went to Don Det. (Don means island.)
And for four days... it was back to the basic basic of all basics. Lived in bamboo and palm bungalows along the riverside. No electricity. No phone, no internet, no nothing. Tourism is only about 4 years old in the islands. The villagers caught on that people were discovering their paradise, so it seems that every family built a string of bungalows along the river to house backpackers for about a dollar a night. There are probably 15-20 'resorts' (ha!) on Don Det alone. They're all pretty much the same -- huts with a bed and a mozzy net, and a hammock on the deck. Each 'resort' has its own restaurant. (Read: the family kitchen.... you tell them what you want, they make it. You've got a choice of rice, curry, banana pancakes, noodles and oh, well, fruitshakes... some with special ingredients!!!!) If you order something and they don't have it, they'll hop on their bicycles and go find it in someone else's kitchen. It's all very communal. Duncan ordered chicken one night, and the waiter said, 'just a sec...' and hopped on his
bike and came back 5 minutes later and said he couldn't get a chicken. I'm assuming he tried to go catch one.
This type of place attracts a certain type of traveller... because there's NOTHING to do except read, write, eat, sleep, lay in a hammock and contemplate life while watching the Mekong babble by. It's the slow season now (not that there really is a busy season in this area) and there were probably less than 25 westerners on the island. The people who live on the islands are self sufficient. They ride their bikes around the mud paths, farm coconuts, fish (oh yes, I saw them spear fishing) and farm animals as well. Right behind my bungalow was a field of cows, water buffaloes, rice paddies, chickens and pigs. I feel like I got a better taste of real village life here than I did on my hilltribe trek through northern Thailand.
So for four days, all I did was eat, read, write, play cards, drink Beer Laos, watch the river, lay in my hammock watching sunsets and crazy rainstorms and..... WAIT FOR THE DONUT MAN!!!! !! !!!
That's right! Every day, this Australian guy
who came to Don Det a few years ago and never left... (I think he might be a victim of too many happy shakes -- he asked me what year it was - honest) rides his bike around carrying this massive tray of his homemade donuts! He makes banana donuts, chocolate banana donuts, plain donuts... and delivers them by bike. When an American girl told me about this on my first night, I didn't believe her. But, it was true. Donut man is a fixture on Don Det.
And the donuts are delish!
So one afternoon, I had been thinking about the donut man... and I waited and waited and waited... and he didn't come. So, I decided to go for a walk to see if I had missed him... I was sneaking around the little pathways to see if he was at another bungalow strip...when out of nowhere he comes flying down the path, one hand on the handle bars, the other holding the tray of donuts. He zings right passed me!!! So, out of fear that I'd miss out on the donuts I had been dreaming about all afternoon, I chased him! I feared all the hungry
hippies would devour them before I got a chance to make my carefully thought out purchase. But as I ran down the path, I came face to face (or should I say snout) with this big fat mother of a PIG! (Not the ditchpig, a REAL pig!) and then it started chasing ME! So I turned and ran in the other direction and then another bike came along and scared the thing, and it turned and tried to get through a barbed wire fence, but got stuck. Picture it: me scared of the pig, the pig scared of the bike, and then the pig gets stuck in this narrow little path. And she's squealing. And what's worse? The donut man on the bike is getting away!!!! I couldn't handle the thought of not getting a donut, so finally I jumped over the pig and kept running after donut man.... Thankfully, I found him and it wasn't too late. It's amazing what becomes normal on a Tuesday afternoon on Don Det.
Anyway, I played loads of cards, practically wrote a novel, read several books and well, I am happy to say I think I've figured out my life... 😊 HA!
Walking down the street in Vientiane...
...it's most definately the rainy season! Now I'm back in Vientiane, Duncan has gone on to Cambodia, and I'm heading to Luang Prabang by bus....REAL BUS....tomorrow.
Congrats to you, Sean, on your graduation. So sorry I missed it... you looked fantastic in the pics Mel sent!
Well, hope you all are celebrating Canada Day in style. Me? I'll have a Beer Laos for you.... Much love....xo
PS - I realize that I have included several photos of my feet. Sorry about that. 😊
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Mom
non-member comment
Happy Canada Day!!
Hi Kel - love your photos & your Donut Man/Pig Story!! Dad & the boys are heading out this morning (in the rain) on their weeklong canoe trip!I think some of your stories compare to theirs!!????What wonderful experiences!! Stay Safe Love, Mom & Dad. & Sean XOXOX