It's been a while since my last post as I have been away from anything remotely resembling civilzation. I am in the Four Thousand Islands, this amazing place at the southern tip of Laos on the Cambodian border. Literally, thousands of islands where the Mekong spreads out to 14 Km. Some inhabitied, others small and uninhabited. I am on this island called Don Det. I have a 2 dollar bungalow right on the river watching amazing sunrises as the villagers start their day. Idyllic.
This in my book is heaven. Coconut palms, uber-mellow vibe, great food, costs just about nothing to be here. This is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Truly.
But getting here shall we say was HELL!
I took a detour east in South Central Laos towards the Vietnamese border to do this motorcycle ride I had heard about called the Loop. I think what they meant to call it was "Loopey" cause by the end of the first day I was spent, tired, aching, hurt, and feeling totally exhausted. And I had another 3 days to go before I completed the loop.
The problem was the condition of the road or should I say the condition of the lack of road. And again, the maps that I had were completely wrong but I was used to that part and if I got lost no big deal. But the road was designed by the Devil himself who was having a bad day. The issue is they are building a big dam project here and as the water is flooding the valleys the roads get swallowed and they build these temporary ones that truly suck. All the villages have been relocated so there is no one and there is this uneasy feeling of watching these beautiful jungles disappear as the water fills them in. Kind of like watching a patient slowly die.
At one point on this bumpy, pot-hole, cobblestone-encrusted path to nowhere I see my front end of the bike disappear down a hole, I go flying over the handlebars only to see the front end reemerge so I am now heading into the handlebars, then the back end hits the hole and I am now popping a wheely going backwards off the bike, back end comes back up and now I am off the pegs with my feet dragging the ground-ouch rock, ouch root, BIG OUCH bike peg into my leg. But I am still upright and with my road mantra still intact the rubber is facing down. I finally come to a stop. Ok. Regroup. Assess body. Lets see, no head injuries, aching calf not bad. No bleeding. Bike is not spewing gas everywhere and about to blow. Walk it off Mogalian. Here I am truly in the middle of nowhere. I haven't seen another person or vehicle in hours and I am lucky that I can continue with an intact bike and body. OK slow my ass down and keep going. Finally, after a whole day of this I reach a town that is supposed to have a guest house. I get to it and the young boy say "No guesthouse. Finish". SHIT! Ok, so where is the next guest house, young man,I ask in my best Lao I can speak from my phrasebook? Fifty seven kilometers more. OK. just 57 Km more of hell.
Well to make a long story a bit longer, I safely make it to the guest house in a town called Lak Xao where I grab a bite and then pass out immediately only to be woken to the late night pounding of construction going on next door until midnight. Arrrgh!! Will this day never end? They finally wrap things up around 12am and I fall into an uneasy sleep.
Not my greatest day ever and one for the record books.
The next day was actually not as bad as the views supersceded the hell of the road and I made pretty decent time to Ban Na Hin where I was able to stay with a local family in what is called a Homestay. That is where a local family puts you up for the night, provides dinner and breakfast and you get to hang out in a small village for as long as you like.
That was a great experience. And for dinner? Rice, veggies, some fish and Bar- b- qued Rat soup. No shit. Tasty, in a unique and rodent-like way. Nothing else compares to it that I have had so far. The meat was tender and the soup was spicey and Oh that unique flavor of rat. I get now what my cat Lucy has been enjoying all these years.
It just seemed to add to the overall gestalt of a couple days descent into hell.But that was what I had to do before getting to heaven here in the 4000 Islands.
