Messing about on the river

the river

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After my first motorbike jaunt without incident   - hooray!  I got the bus and then boat to Si Phan don  - meaning 4000 islands - in the Mekong. I opted for the quieter Don Khone island and found myself staying in a quiet and lovely village. So wonderful to be surrounded by village life, its so peaceful, despite the roosters! I spent 3 wonderful days here, staying in a fantastic family guesthouse where the owners spoke no english, and I no Lao. But Papa and Mama's hospitality was legendary.  Apart from reading and writing and visiting the waterfalls, the most exciting thing that happend was a nighttime adventure with Papa. 3 of us decided to go with papa to a festival - I might add that the symbol for festival was standing and waving arms around in circular dance like motions, so we werent exactly sure what we were signing ourselves upto. what followed was a hilarious night timeboat ride with 4 bicylces on the boat to one of the other islands. We then moored the boat and papa gave me a bottle of Lao Lao (Lao Rice Whiskey) to store in my handy pocket of my trousers. We then strapped head torches on and set off on our bicyles  into the black of night along rice paddies. Hilarious. We finally arrived at someone's house about 40 minutes later where there were lots of people milling around, children running and sleeping, a television on, and lots and lots of food. We proceeded to drink lots of lao lao and eat lots of noodles and coconut pudding. then we gave an offering to the host. He appeared by 4 miniture beds crammed full of offerings, so we (an american couple and I ) thought that maybe this was a memorial party of some kind. Sadly there seemed to be no circular waving of arms to speak of - I had been rather looking forward to it! - so we set off on our bicyles into the night. Papa lost his way, so we ended up cycling through peoples gardens, asking for directions. Finally we found the boat again, stopped off for Beer Lao and chicken at the family where we moored the boat, and then finally headed back to the guesthouse. Brilliant! Si Phan Don is a really restful place where alot of travellers spend alot of time, but tempted though I was, it was again time to head on