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Don Det, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Wednesday, Aug 23, 2000

The South

David Murray
2007-02-02 03:30:23

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I had a look around, saw the waterfall and the cave with all the Buddha images and then my world became brighter. Anal left me. He wanted out of Laos, and I wanted to go South. I jumped on a bus and went back to Vang Vieng. Hooked up with some Israelis who I had been seeing all over SEA. We did the river tube run. 5000 Kip and they drop you off and then you ride it back. Also went for a walk to the caves with one of the girls. Now, this trip, I was playing the celibate card, being as Lucy was still in Australia, and I was slightly worried about the eyes that this girl was giving me. Her name was Galet, she had an awesome body but a head like Fraggle Rock !!!!!. It became even more worrying when she took off her top and had this tiny little skimpy bra on and she asked me if I minded, but I didn’t. We then grabbed a guide and hit a cave. We were climbing over and under rocks, until all of a sudden, one of her breasts popped out. She asked again if I minded but I nearly laughed, but the lucky guide was comatose on the ground. Poor guy. I carried him out. As Galet had already given him a tip, I didn’t see any reason in giving him another one. Next morning, I jumped on the back of a ute and went back to Vientiane for the sole purpose of going as far South as possible

The roads down this way were shocking. I had jumped on a bus as it was going that way. When it arrived in Tha Khaek, I jumped off. Why. Don’t know really, but sometimes we do these things. The Lonely Planet said it was a good place. By this stage, I was getting worried, as it wasn’t being reliable. Everything was expensive so I took the executive decision to leave in the morning. In the morning, I rolled a quick joint, first mistake, and hopped in a ute, second mistake. This ute started to fill up. In total, there were 36 people including the driver with myself as the only westerner. Then it happened, we stopped a roadside stand and the locals came running over with chicken on a stick and 5 lightly grilled grasshoppers on a stick. Then I turned around and at least 12 people out of 20 were eating them. Herbivore, yes, carnivore, yes, insectivore, definitely not. That is when I realised my second mistake. It should have been 2 joints !!!!! I jumped out at Savannakhet, a sleepy town on the Mekong. Checked out the Lonely Planet and all the hotels were crap, so paid big money again and abused the book again. The following morning, I hooked up with a Dutch guy, Hugo-ago-go, and his book, like mine was a crappy photocopy so we jumped on a bus and went to Pakse, gateway to the 4000 islands. Grabbed a hotel and in the morning took the bus to Si Phan Don, where we boarded a long boat, and it took me over to Don Dhet. The smaller of the islands. As I had been doing loads of buses on the crappiest roads in Laos, it was time to sit and have a break. The beauty of the island was that there is no transportation around it. Not even push bikes. So I walked everywhere. There used to be a railway, but now the rails are being used as supports for little bridges. The engines have been left to rot in some bushes. Saw a waterfall, but the crowning glory of the south is the Irrawddy dolphin. For US$0.25c, you go out in a long boat and sit in the calms of the rapids, and then they appear. It was amazing. They say there is only around 20 of them. Why? Because the Laos people believe when you die, you come back as an Irrawaddy dolphin, whilst the Cambodian people believe that if you fish with dynamite, there is good eating on a dolphin !!!!! Other than that, a gut by the name of Kenny, showed me how to roll proper joints. Now I can roll, so I stayed for 9 days, rolling, and rolling, and more rolling !!!! Not much more to do except, walk and roll. Still it’s a nice life if you can do it !!!!!