I Heart Hin Boun

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Pretty much the first thing I did upon arriving in Hin Boun was take a ride on a boat made out of a B52 fuel casing. How is that for ingenius? The whole group of us were spread out over two of these boats, and zoomed along the river (don't ask me which one, I have no idea), stopping to watch the sunset. As we were pulling back into the village we were greeted by a scene of about 15 kids climbing up this giant tree sticking out of the middle of the river, then jumping off it. It looked pretty darn fun.

At that point though, I was rather thirsty, having neglected my bottle-of-water-buying duties at the last pitstop. The place we were staying in was a pretty traditional village though, so I thought it might be a long walk back over the bridge to find a shop. But long walk being the optimum words here, I decided it worth a try seeing what was around. As I was walking up a dirt path, all these Laos kids came up to me, and two of them gave me flowers they had picked. I put them in my hair, then they offered me their hands, so I skipped up the road (OK, I walked, but skipping sounds better), swinging my arms hand in hand with some Laos village kids who were practising their English with me. We went through hello and counting to 10 before reaching the junction of the road, where we had to part ways.

I found the water, but that's pretty irrelevant, I just liked getting to associate with some of the locals (as short a time as it may have been). It was almost as refreshing as the cold shower just before dinner (it is impolite in Laos culture if you don't shower before dinner, even if the 'shower' is in fact a giant stone tub full of water, and a bucket to scoop it up and pour over yourself).

The food was homecooked and delicious, and afterwards we played a couple of rounds of varying card games, before an early night. There was thunder and lightning all night, with pounding rain pretty much as soon as we hopped into bed (which I swear was crawling with insects). This suited me, because I love sleeping with the sounds of rain outside. Anyway, the reason for the early night was made apparent as the family we were staying with started their daily business in the house at some ungodly hour. The sounds of footsteps going past your head suddenly alerts you to the sounds of roosters, ducks and probably a whole array of other things all making their early morning cries. We were fed, watered, packed and on the bus by 8am, with plenty of time to spare.

The busride was rather uneventful: with my propensity for motion sickness, I generally spend these sorts of travels with my eyes closed and my ipod on. However on this particular trip I was quoted saying something that is apparently memorable. We were talking about how we could see Ho Chi Minh's body in Hanoi, when Abbey (my roomie) asked why they would preserve his body. I just rattled out "Oh, they stuff all the communist leaders". Abbey at least found it hillarious, even after I went on about the origins from Russia and the fact that it totally clashes with the wishes of the communist leaders etc etc. No, apparently the wording was enough to make it funny even if it was a decently justified statement. I kind of agree.

Anyway, next thing we know, we're at the Vietnam border, and ready for all new adventures...

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Photos

Me on a B52 fuel casing
Looking thoroughly attractive in a fluoro orange life jacket.

B52 boat
How cool is that?

The sunset
I'll be honest, it didn't actually look that pretty in reality.

Yeh, a random cow...
It started coming walking towards me with no signs of stopping. That's when you appreciate how big cows are.

Cruising along
In a B52 fuel casing. Still so cool.

Reflections on the water
During the sunset, one of a vast amount of photos I took.