Bana Hin

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We arrived late, very late thinking of that everyone goes to sleep at 9 in Laos. Thankfully we met an owner of a guesthouse and he gave us his number so that we could arrive late. The room was nice and big with hot water. The whole place was built of oak and it was very new, you could smell the tree.

The next day we decided to go on a short trip to a waterfall 3 km away. These numbers are sometimes very wrong, so 3 km could be 1 or maybe even 6. The weather was nice, we were the only tourists in town (apart from two cycling Germans) and we had a sleep-in. The trip started at the tourist office where we paid the national park fee. These tourist offices in Laos are great, they don't try to sell you stuff but give you all the information you need. In Savannakhet the tourist office has all guesthouses in town, all internet shops, all motorbike rentals and their prices. The one in Na Hin had a supercute 2 months old puppy.

After 20 metres we had to stop to take pictures of dragonflys, after 20 more metres there was butterflys, 20 more and we had a goat-mother with her newborn child. It was like wildlife extreme. We also saw a dead snake, a tiny snake, a swimming snake, hoards of butterflys and other animals. The trek itself was fine, it had rained the day before but it was ok, I was wearing proper shoes. After a long time and trek up and down and over water we came up to something I though was too small for the waterfall. There are so many here so that a fall of only a couple of metres would not be recognised. So I continued, first up the path in the jungle, but that was too steep and slippery so I decided to go back to the smaller fall and try to climb along the rocks of the side of the water. The main falls were just a few hundred metres away. Unfortunatly the wilderness was too tight and I didn't manage to get all the way to the falls which I would have liked. But I went back to the small fall and had a swim and then we ate our brought food and headed back. The walk back only took a third of the time that it took to walk there. Very strange.

To get the boat down to the Kong Lo cave (the main reason we went here in the first place) we had to speak to a man named Choy. Well, we could have gone through the tourist office but Choy was supposed to be cheaper and show you stuff the tourist office won't. To get to him we had to go to a guesthouse in the beginning of the village. Probably about 3 km away. So we went there and was told Choy was on a trip right now so we should come back the next morning at 6. Very early but that is the Laos way. The guesthouse had two small monkeys and the owner is a really nice woman who has had a lot of problems with men. Currently she has a western husband who has left her because she nags about him drinking too much. She thinks he is in Thailand with a young woman. She says that the Thai girls have 5 or 10 western boyfriend while in Laos only one.

It is quite interesting to see in what light the different countries view each other. Cambodia and Laos really doesn't like Vietnam, since the Vietnamese are hustlers. The Vietnamese thinks that Cambodians are primitives, which they are in a bit. A few years back a famous Thai artist answered the question "what don't you like?" with "Cambodians". This led to a the trashing of the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh. Not sure yet in the Laos-Cambodia relations.

After a 3 km walk back to our guesthouse we were well tired but had to fight the hunger first. After cheap plate of fried rice and as usual only getting one of the two drinks I had ordered it was time for bed to be able to get up early next morning.

We did get up, fairly tired, and now we had to leave for the other guesthouse in the other side of town. Thinking of the weight of the backpack, and the guitar, and the drum and the handluggage, we asked a pickup stopping in a junction if he could take us there. He was actually only going to the market halfway but let us hop up in the back and took us the whole way. Afterwards he said that I we had any problems we should come to him. The extreme friendlyness of strangers is weird but very nice.

Mr Choy was at the restaurant, but left pretty soon to get us a Songthaw to go to the place where he has to boat. After 3 hours we left, I knew there was no real point for getting there so early but at least we would be tired during the evening and fall asleep easily.

We got in the Songthaw and got taken all the way to the market where we stopped. I went and bought some meat to eat for lunch. Then we moved 20 metres to get big bags of rice on the back. Finally we were moving. Another of the people in the back was fascinated by my hairy arms. They don't have that around here, not cold enough I guess.

We got to the place with the boat and had a nice swim in the river before entering and taking off. The scenary was great, really great. All around us there was these karsk-mountains, some full of jungle and some too steep so only rocks. Then you have the river going through it with bamboo growing everywhere. And a few houses with kids that wave and screem "Hallo" after you. I took the front seat so that I could lie down.

The first part of the journey was about 2 hours and we stopped at a guesthouse in the middle of nowhere. If I was a writer and wanted a peaceful place to stay for a while, this could be it. We had a drink and a small lunch until continuing.

It was very beautiful just looking at things, no problems in the world. I wish I had a camera that could do it all justice, but to be honest, no camera can. We stopped at a small sideriver which had clear green water and came straight from the mountains. This ment it was cold, too cold for me. It was only 21 degrees when I checked with my thermometer. Crazyness swimming in that cold water.

The clouds were hording up in the sky and they were of the dark colour that guarantees rain. We stopped, put our bags in small plastic bags and continued. About 2 km from our destination we stopped at a camp site. And the rain started. It was only us at the campsite as it is low season and no tourists so it was closed. But very cool for us to be there during a monsun storm with thunder and lightning. As it was all surrounded by high mountains the ground moved each time the thunder struck.

When the rain was not as hard we continued and got really wet. But it was only 15 minutes and then we hid in the closest house to the river. It turned out that that was the house we were gonna sleep.

The people were very nice even though they spoke a minimal of English.

As it was now sunshine and we didn't have anything to do we walked out of the back of the garden. The view was magical. Ricefield surrounded by misty mountains. We took a lot of pictures, got almost run over by a crazy waterbuffalo and got two extra soles on our shoes from the red mud that the road was made by.

The next morning we were gonna go on the 7 km long boatride through the cave. A short trip to the cave in a dugout canoe that barely kept us above the waterlevel and then entering the cave. Our two guides took the motor of the boat and put it on another boat in the cave, a bigger and sturdier one. Then it was time to turn on the headlights. The guides had decent light but we only had simple flashlights that didn't really shine up anything since it was big places. The ride was ok, a bit cold and you could not really see anything. We did make a stop on a sandbank in the middle of the cave and you could see that somebody had been there before as there was traces from a campfire. After going through it all, having to get out two times because the waterlevel was too low it was nice to see sunlight in the entrance of the cave. When we had entered it we had thick clouds covering the valley like a lid. We didn't do anything but having a toilet break and then headed back through the cave. The return only took half of the time. Unfortunatly my camera doesn't like big open dark places so I couldn't get any decent pictures from the cave. But to be honest, caves isn't really my thing.

Figuring out things is a big part of growing up. When younger I think "I would like to do that" or "maybe that's the thing for me". Now I know that some of those things are off the list. After having a drum and playing it for a while I have decided that I don't want to become a drummer. I don't have enough talant and interest. I have also decided I don't want to become a surfer, the thought of not seeing what is underneath combined with a small revard of what you do. Diving is much better for me.

The boatride back was as idyllic as the first, I managed to get sunburn on my upper thigh, a place which had upon this moment not seen any sun. It was a bit strange as I only burned a very small patch, probably a place I missed when putting on sunscreen.

During the evening we had a dinner with Mr Choy who had a bit of a problem eating steak with knife and fork. We also played with the monkeys. They have two, Unni and Toni. Toni was the first one and was bought at the market. He is up to a lot and makes a lot of trouble sometimes. Unni was bought for 10 dollars at another market to calm Toni down. They have been taken to the jungle many times to be let go as free but always comes back. So it's not really bad monkey petkeeping. They do run free some of the time but have to go into a cage when they are too much trouble. If you hold them and "pick" their fleas they relax in your arms and it's like stroking an intelligent dog.

The next morning we took an early bus to Vientiane, a bit worried as our last bus journey had been mainly bad. The ride was fine, felt shorter than it was and now we were in the capital of this country. I was looking forward to eating all of the different kinds of food that was on offer.

Pictures have been updated for 5 blogs

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