Nine
hour sleeper bus to get here. ‘King of Buses’ cannot be described…..wee hours
of the morning, hostel is booked, its small, deserted, dusty, peaceful, laid
back here, find room, find food and info. Wandering along the Mekong,
unobstructed and sleepy. Discover ‘real’ Pakse (not just tourist centre of
town), meet Mona and Simon, plan our day at Bolaven plateau. Within a few
hours, Stephen has pink eye. Takes almost 24 hours to figure that out. Language
barrier, 2 hospital visits, emails, the kindness of our new friends, Laos patience
and help, it is sorted out.
Sunsets, markets, lovely dinner conversation, delaying our tour. It is sunny here, no respite. An uncharged visit to the hospital, ridiculously cheap eye drops and resting a couple of days, Stephen is recovering. We venture to the Bolaven Plateau. A small group, sunny (!) day, tea and coffee, plantations, waterfalls, a new friend, and animist village, all kind of through a directional ‘lens’ which in itself says a lot. Being duped by a young girl, it is sad that she had to play me at all, I would have responded equally to her honestly. It is worth the visit to see just how much you need to read between the lines here. We end the tour with a really lovely swim. I think our small group is all seeing the day as I (we) are. The swim gives us time to contemplate, it is refreshing and the most connected experience we have had with our guide all day. A quiet journey back to Pakse, sunset, food and anticipation, tomorrow we take a 2+ hour slow boat ride on the Mekong to our next stop. I think our journey here will stay with us.
Sunsets, markets, lovely dinner conversation, delaying our tour. It is sunny here, no respite. An uncharged visit to the hospital, ridiculously cheap eye drops and resting a couple of days, Stephen is recovering. We venture to the Bolaven Plateau. A small group, sunny (!) day, tea and coffee, plantations, waterfalls, a new friend, and animist village, all kind of through a directional ‘lens’ which in itself says a lot. Being duped by a young girl, it is sad that she had to play me at all, I would have responded equally to her honestly. It is worth the visit to see just how much you need to read between the lines here. We end the tour with a really lovely swim. I think our small group is all seeing the day as I (we) are. The swim gives us time to contemplate, it is refreshing and the most connected experience we have had with our guide all day. A quiet journey back to Pakse, sunset, food and anticipation, tomorrow we take a 2+ hour slow boat ride on the Mekong to our next stop. I think our journey here will stay with us.
w r i t t e n b y l a u r e l
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