The rain chased us from Vang Vien. Kurt told me it was a
shame I didn’t get to tube down the river and get drunk from the river side
bars as is the custom, but the rain ruined things. So Kurt and I decided to
keep moving south and maybe we would get some sun and a much needed break from
the road. We booked the ‘sleeper bus’ from Vientienne to Paxe, with regular
buses making up the difference between Vang Vien and Vientienne, as well as
Paxe to Don Det. The sleeper was cozy, We got a pic of it and it was basically
a 5 by 3 foot cushion on which we both had to sleep. Our shoulders overlapped
if we both lay on our backs at the same time. Regardless it was more
comfortable than a traditional bus for the 13 hour bus ride to Paxe. I managed
a decent sleep, but Kurt felt nauseous the whole way and didn’t end up sleeping
at all. By the time we got to Paxe all he wanted to do was find a bed. It’s
only another 2 and a half hours to Don Det, so I tried to convince him to come
but he was feeling way to shitty and was set on staying in Paxe. I felt bad
leaving him and offered to delay our onward ticket to the next day, but he was
set on staying in one spot to ride out his sickness. Seeing as the ticket was
already payed for and I hadn’t had a chance to chill in one spot for an
extended period of time, I decided to push on. So another 2.5 hours on the bus
then a little ferry across the Mekong river and I made it to Don Det Island in southern Laos. I started talking to an
American guy from Colorado
on the boat and we set off to look for guesthouses together. He was an alright
guy, but not someone I want to be spending a lot of time with here so we parted
ways as we chose different guesthouses. I found a spot with a charismatic ‘mama’
who’s teeth are stained black from chewing tobacco presumably. It’s a very
small Island, and you can walk around the
whole thing in maybe an hour. I met three Israelis who offered me to smoke with
them. Very friendly and chill folks just on the tail end of a 7 month trip
through many places including India.
They were doing Hebrew crosswords and listening to some tunes so I sat and
smoked with them for a bit. Then I decided to go find a restaurant to view the
beautiful sunset over the Mekong
River. Found a decent
place and ordered the beef, sticky rice and a beer Lao. The beef was the
chewiest piece of meat I’ve ever had. I’m not sure if it was a bad cut or not
beef at all but I choked down whatever pieces would fit down my throat and
decided to stick to noodle dishes from now on. The beef couldn’t spoil the view
though as 3 straight days of rain ended in a beautiful cloudy sunset. Don’t
know if it was the chewy beef or the smoke, but I felt content, maybe just one thing(person)
missing. You can definitely see the poverty here. Even in Vang Vien,
most businesses are family run. Literally that is what the whole family does
all day. If there is demand for business they don’t close. Kurt and I got a
much needed foot massage the other day and I swear we were disturbing the
family from their supper. I felt bad but they truly wanted us to come in and
give them business. It is quite obvious that tourism is supporting this whole
area. It seems like your vocation here is either tourism, or farming and
fishing. Not only does tourism bring in more money, I think it’s the easier
work too. None the less I still feel bad when to get to my riverside hut, I
have to walk through the family kitchen/livingroom/bedroom to get there. They
always are happy for the business and love to joke. You hear the girls call
single guys handsome all the time. The first time it happened I let my ego inflate
a bit, but Kurt reassured me that they call any single white man handsome. A
white husband would mean passage to a better country, a more comfortable life
and money to help out their family back home. You see old white men take
advantage of this fact all the time and to me it’s creepy. I’m not sure how
they can convince themselves that a young, pretty Asian girl who doesn’t speak
their language at all is legitimately interested in them. But this is a
different world from back home, that is for sure.
