Mekong Cycle Adventure

Stung Treng, adventure capital of Cambodia! Well, at least to us and our good friend Mr. Thiera at Xplore Asia, who gave us the fantastic suggestion of a 3 days / 2 nights biking trip that would span about 150km, ending in the scenic city of Kratie. Even better, we would be unguided for the journey, other than a basic map, some instructions and a local guide on one of the islands to make sure we didn’t lose our way during that confusing stretch of bush. The two nights would be in village homestays that were on a drop in basis so we could make the choice of accommodation. Perfect arrangements for us!

We arrived back in Stung Treng from Ban Lung to begin our journey just after lunch. It was a bit of a late start but the first day was meant to be a fairly easy 40-ish kilometres and the weather looked fine, if a bit hot. We hit the road with nervous excitement and our grins turned into even bigger smiles when light clouds rolled in to shade us from the hot sun. With the wind starting to pick up and the clouds fading ever darker, we knew we were in for a bit of rainy season refreshment. However, we were totally unprepared for the major deluge that struck. Imagine turning on a garden hose and sticking it directly in your face...for about 45 minutes…

Luckily we found an abandoned building with substantial overhangs to take some cover and wait it out. In a hilarious twist, what had been a minor ditch we biked over to reach our shelter became, very surprisingly to Patricia, a deep un-crossable moat. Ben laughed as she splashed over sideways when trying to get back to the road and then looked a bit sheepish after giving it a run only to topple over as well. All of this within the first hour. Great start!

Within an hour of resuming our riding, our smiling muscles were sore with the response to every singly village child that we met along the way yelling a big “Hello!”, and so very excited when we would yell “Hello” back. This became a theme for the entire journey, with every kilometre of riding punctuated by what seemed like unending cries of greeting from the super friendly villagers.

Fortunately the rain eventually relented and we made it without other mishaps to the ferry crossing, which we found on our own despite our best efforts to ask local villagers along the way.  It was a short and cheap ride over to the island where we cycled another handful of kilometres along a single lane dirt track past rice fields that set our surroundings off in a beautiful array of yellows and greens. We ran into a young local cyclist along the way who smiled and said “homestay?” at us inquiringly. Why not? So we followed him through the village to a fine looking wooden structured labelled Homestay #1.

After meeting with the very friendly daughter of the family, who spoke very good English and was studying to be a school teacher, we looked searchingly for a shower. Having biked through sun and rain we had a necessary session of cleaning off our bikes and other gear, and the ladies were kind enough to lend Patricia a typical batique sarong used by the local women for bathing in the outdoor showers.  Afterwards we were left with an incredibly refreshed feeling and the setting could not have been more perfect.

That night we were treated to a great feast of fish, rice, omelette and greens on our own little bamboo mat in the family’s kitchen.  Despite the churned mud present everywhere in the rainy season, the family kept an impeccable home, clean and tidy, and it was a pleasure to spend the night in their pleasant company.

Afterwards we all lay back to chat over tea and to see if we could find a boatman to take us from the village to our next island destination where we could expect a very difficult overland ride. Our inquiry turned into a pretty serious negotiation session with an uncle to the family, involving a phone call back to Mr. Thiera in Stung Treng after we insisted we would not pay his first price. This man was a cool cucumber, no doubt enjoying the out of ordinary excitement, and clearly relishing the tension between the two parties. In the end we agreed on a rate we could all live with and spent a bit more time chatting before tucking in to our comfy bed under fancifully trimmed mosquito net.

In the morning during breakfast we managed to communicate that we were hoping to have a lunch packed for our long ride that day. Grandma understood first and quickly swung into action, resourcefully using mother nature’s jungle Tupperware – the amazing banana leaf. We smiled at the unlikely scene as she packed a great spread including sauce for our fish and rice to go. 

And we were off, bikes in the front of the long and narrow fishing boat. With the morning rain having hit hard earlier and now passed, we were excited to reach the start of the day’s ride and meet our local island guide. Upon reaching the shore, we found ourselves about an hour early at the appointed meeting spot, which was right in front of a family home, a typical wooden house on stilts. As usual in Cambodia, the people were friendly beyond belief, offering us their hammocks in the shade underneath their dwelling. Not being ones to easily laze around, we helped with the common village chore of peeling tough corn kernels from their cobs. We also gave the children some new pens we had brought with us for that purpose, and they were touchingly thankful.

Just then our guide arrived and we swung into action, saying goodbye to our new friends and crossing behind their farm through a gate that led into the bush. Thiera had warned us that Day 2 would be the hardest, but we weren't quite prepared for the level of endurance required to complete 40 km through loose sand and long stretches of water. The rainy season had had its way with the path and it was only with a lot of determination and some good mountain bikes that we would make our way along the length of the island. Perhaps we could have guessed that the going would be tough when our guide opted to go by motorbike!

We slogged along, passing through a mix of forest and grassland, eventually learning to enjoy the challenge of splashing through puddles, trying to keep our balance all the way to the end to avoid dunking our heavy shoes. About midway along we pulled off to find some basic shelter below a tree during a brief heavy rain and decided a picnic lunch was just the ticket to boost our motivation and to take a well deserved break. Super delicious and an incredible pick me up – thanks Grandma!

After another very long and difficult stretch, we made it out of the bush and onto a much better road for the last stretch to our next village homestay. That made it a total of over four hours of really tough slogging and Patricia in particular was quite beat. One anecdote perfectly summed up her feeling and had the fearless cyclists laughing for lack of any other suitable emotion. Ben had just crossed a rather daunting mud and water section, luckily finding perhaps the only way through and was vigorously signalling and shouting for Patricia to follow his trail. Patricia rounded the corner, legs pumping off rhythm, head rising with apparent effort, slowly taking in the magnitude of the obstacle and the instructions being issued from the other side. The mind might have been willing, but the body would not respond and with a forlorn look she continued on her present course, not able to either change direction or to slow down, ploughing directly into the deepest part of the water and taking a slow sideways splash. She got up soaked and after a quizzical look, threw her hands up in the air and erupted in laughter causing Ben to follow suit.

We arrived at the village and our very apparent foreign presence brought us into contact with the local ecotourism leader. He showed us to a house for the night and explained that meals would be served at his home down the road. If we were eager for a shower after the first day, the longing on day two was almost painful. The bikes themselves needed a full on bath to give them some hope of changing gears the following day. As usual, the lady of the house was quite helpful in assisting us with laundering all of our dirty gear and getting shower supplies, while Ben worked the mud out of the bikes with bamboo sticks.

While the sleeping accommodation was fairly simple, unlike our first stay whose family clearly took pride in welcoming guests and keeping a nice house, the meals down the road were really incredible. The ladies who prepared them were eager to chat in order to practice their English, were very thoughtful and intelligent and were definitely making an effort to further their eduation. It was really nice to see and a fun place to hang out. Incredibly tired from a very long day, we walked back home, taking in another spectacular sunset on the Mekong and gladly joined the family for a lay down on the floor in front of some Thai soap opera (there are no couches in the typical Cambodian home, just pillows thrown around the wooden floors or a raised wooden platform). It was a perfectly mindless activity and eased our transition to a much needed sleep.

After a great breakfast and chat with the friendly food ladies, we packed up our gear and took a nice leisurely ride through the village. It was incredibly calm, friendly and picturesque rolling over wooden bridges, past quaint wooden homes. We could hear the familiar refrain of “Hello!” eminating from the children as we rode along and occasionally we would stop to hand out more pens and say our own Hellos. We never tired of hearing this friendly call, except for our facial muscles that were upturned in a continuous smile as we tried to respond to everyone who greeted us. Exhausting being that friendly! But who could resist these adorable and curious creatures…

Reaching the southernmost part of the island, we boarded yet another boat to take us back to the mainland side of the Mekong for the final stretch to Kratie. Our legs were fairly burned out from our mud battle the previous day and so it was fortunate for us that most of this stretch was on easy paved road. We made a stop at a nearby Wat and made a donation at the Turtle conservation group and also grabbed some delicious Rabutan fruits for a break later on. The best entertainment of this ride was getting to see just how far Cambodians could push the carrying capacity of their motorbikes. When we saw each new creative packing job, we tried to pull over to capture the magic.

We finally arrived in Kratie, a notably funny city due to the fact that locals pronounce the name “Crotches”, and found no end to the possible puns involving two cyclists arriving in said town after a long, numbing journey. Thiera had hooked us up with a great hostel, aptly called The Balcony and there we stayed, resting, enjoying the amazing view and great food for two delightful activity-free days. We did wander the town long enough to explore the market and get Ben’s shorts repaired.

Cycling cross-country was a really incredible and intense adventure that gave us an amazing opportunity to get to know the people and the land of Cambodia in a personal way.  And the more we got to know of this country and its inhabitants, the more we fell in love with them.

Stung Treng and Ban Lung

Our inquiries and efforts in Laos to find a kayak trip on the Mekong river had led us to the small northern Cambodian town of Stung Treng. We got off to a great start here as when Ben was off searching for hostel options he bumped into a friendly couple, one half of which was from Brasil. After explaining that Patricia also hailed for this tropical country, solemn promises were given to return quickly for lunch together. The food and conversation made us feel welcome right away.

After satiating our appetite, we wasted no time in tracking down the local Xplore Asia office to arrange paddling. We met with Mr. Theara and agreed to begin the next day with him as our guide. This long awaited adventure sounded incredible – a 30km downstream kayak through the trees of a flooded forest in the middle of the Mekong River, with a stop in a village that is only accessible by water. We were super excited and wow did we get lucky weather…

We took a fancy four wheel drive van to make the trip by road further upriver. After leaving the main highway we could see why Theara had said that a regular car wouldn’t make the trip. There were huge ruts filled with water and his expert driving kept us from getting stuck several times. At the end of the dirt track we reached the river, grabbed our gear and were eased out into the river by the friendly current. For the next 2 hours we bobbed and weaved through a sometimes dense submerged forest with a mix of tree species of varying size. We later found out from Theara that some of the trees were under about 10 metres of water during the wet season and it became apparent that even the small trunks rising out of the water belonged to rather big plants. We soon gained confidence and began threading our way through obstacles, treating them like gates on a challenge course. With the current taking most of the strain from our muscles it was incredibly fun and we hardly noticed the hours pass.

As we emerged from another dense section of forest into the open river our guide pointed to the far shore and told us that there was the landing to the village where we would have some lunch. The local kids were intrigued to see two pale skinned people clamber up the muddy bank and soon overcame their wariness when we pulled out some new pens we had brought for them. Ben, never one to be bashful, was impressed by one little fellow with a slingshot. Theara seized on the opportunity for a little demonstration and set up a water bottle as a target about 20 feet away on a log asking the child to take his best shot. With practiced ease he drew back, let fly and with a loud crash the bottle was knocked off its perch. First shot! Ben decided to get in on the action and took a few shots just to prove that it actually does take skill to hit something. The kids certainly enjoyed his performance…

We took a tour through the village and got to see one of their prized possessions, a dolphin carcass that fishermen had discovered washed ashore. They buried it to encourage decomposition and had just put the skeleton on display after several years of waiting. These dolphins are endangered and only found in a few locations on the Mekong making their discovery fairly unique. They hope in the years to come that it will become a tourist attraction and a source of income for the village.

We met the village leader, a gregarious and outgoing lady who chatted animatedly with Theara who translated as much as possible. Some very traditional village ladies in Cambodia have a habit of chewing a concoction of tobacco, a small round fruit and ground snail shell paste all smeared inside a special tree leaf. As they chew it, they spit out a deep red liquid that looks like blood and not only stains their teeth badly, it seems to also cause them to fall out! Ironically, they believe this practice is good for the teeth, despite the fact that they clearly have the worst teeth amongst their peers in the village. Theara related a funny story about a Cambodian lady who carried on this practice somewhere in the western world and when a passer-by noticed a pool of blood red liquid on the ground near the old lady he called an ambulance! A dentist would have been more appropriate… The people of the village were really friendly and we had a nice send off by the river as we boarded our kayaks to continue the paddle. The clouds continued to vanish and beautiful blue skies and sunshine graced us for the rest of the afternoon. After another great few hours and even more daring manoeuvres through the living obstacles, we reached the end of our journey. Fortunately a long wooden fishing boat was waiting for us and we didn’t have to self-propel upstream. Everybody was in great spirits after an amazing journey.

We had met another couple of travelers who were briefly stopping through Stung Treng and were adamant that we had to check out the Treetop Eco-lodge in nearby Ban Lung. Although it was a bit out of our way, we couldn’t resist. After a great sleep thanks to our adventure that day, we left in the morning for the three hour minivan ride. This mode of transportation in Cambodia is really great as they provide door to door service and so it was that we were dropped at the end of a red dirt road in Ban Lung outside the Treetop sign indicating a wooden walkway into the jungle.

These kind of fantastic things happen on the road occasionally when another traveler grabs you by the arm, looks you in the eye and says with scary seriousness: “You have to go”. If it is even remotely in your power, you don’t question it, you just go. Traveling can take you down difficult roads at times and help you to learn things about yourself, but after repetitive lessons, a little escape feels glorious. Here was our escape in the form of bungalows perched in the jungle, connected by wooden walkways like an Ewok village and united by a large wooden platform restaurant and lounge. And the price was right at $12 per night. Yeah, the simple things…

The other thing we had heard about Ban Lung was that it had a pretty incredible fresh water swimming hole in a nearby volcanic crater surrounded by dense tropical forest. Finding the strength to leave our jungle paradise we set off walking down the road. We regained our energy with a really delicious bowl of noodle soup and made our way out of town following the side of the main road. After the long walk, the swimming hole was very refreshing and we set ourselves up inside a little gazebo to relax during a brief rain.

Back at the bungalow, we were inspired by the view and space to finally give Ben a much needed haircut. Things had gotten a bit shaggy over the last few months. Patricia did a great job and did not waver despite a few moments of uncertainty due to the shear volume of work ahead of her. From Doctor to Hairdresser - what a multi-talented lady!

The Treetop experience was incredible and totally worth it, if only for a single night. We felt refreshed as we left the next day to return to Stung Treng to begin an ambitious three day adventure by bicycle. We could already tell that Cambodia would be very memorable…

Pakse and 4000 Islands

It was fortunate for us that we had come to really understand the nature of life and travel in Laos because otherwise, our day of travel from Konglor village to Pakse would really have felt hellish.

We knew it was pushing it a bit, to say the least, to visit the amazing Konglor cave in the morning, then leave quickly thereafter to make our way south to Pakse, a journey that even if you believed the listed times would see us barely arrive before the calendar day flipped over. But we had counted up our remaining days in SE Asia and wanted to hoard precious time for adventures in Cambodia. So off we went…

First mode of transport was truck taxi from Konglor village to a larger village with our traveling companions - a really friendly couple from Spain and their two amazing kids. For half of this ride, Ben was standing on the rear platform of the truck, hanging on to the steel bars as the vehicle bounced around on country roads, villagers jumping on and off along the way. Really fun and great natural air conditioning! We hopped off this truck at its final stop and jumped on another one that was heading to Tha Kaek. Tha Kaek is the only town of any size in the area and conveniently located on the main highway used by the public busses that troll up and down this stretch of the country. Before leaving, Ben haggled for a bag of sticky rice and some strips of beef jerky dangling from thin pieces of bamboo like a meat-mobile. Delicious! We’re pretty sure it was beef, although none of the local dogs would look us in the eye…

Now, in Laos, it’s possible to flag down a bus in virtually any circumstance imaginable, whether a public bus or a cushy looking VIP bus. And it just so happened that as our truck rounded the bend onto the main highway that a public bus was stopped and loading on passengers. After shouting a few words at our driver he pulled over and waited as we went to check out the price, destination and state of the bus. The first two items met our criteria, however the last was clearly below expectations as all the seats were filled and people were sitting up the central aisle on tiny plastic stools. After chuckling at this scene, we hopped back on our trusty truck and continued at a slow pace down the road.

About an hour later as Ben was engaged in a fierce competition of Crazy Eights that he had taught the kids, a beautiful shiny bus came roaring up from behind with the door man waving frantically in our direction. Assuming that he wanted to pass us, it was only after the bus pulled ahead that we realized it had a card in the window with the destination, PAKSE, in big bold letters. Crap! This guy was definitely trying to ask us if we wanted a ride and we missed our big chance for a comfy ride to Pakse that surely would have arrived several hours before we bumbled our way into town.

No use dwelling on what could have been. We did make it to Tha Kaek after many card games and we did get on a public bus for Pakse that was leaving right away. This ride was quite the experience. The bus itself looked pretty mean from the outside with its two flaming skull stickers on the front and random junk strapped to the top. We made uncountable stops along the way seemingly whenever anyone needed to answer the call of nature, got a bit hungry, wanted to stretch their legs, needed to deliver a parcel, wanted to say hello to friends, and every other reason under the sun. We took these stops in stride and wandered around outside of the bus with the locals, sometimes haggling for street food and stretching our legs. We finally arrived in Pakse at 1am and after a long and melodramatic bargaining session with a tuk-tuk driver involving many instances of us walking away indignant with arms held high in the air, we got a ride to a hostel and stumbled gratefully into bed. Haggling is important (and kind of fun) at any time of day!

We awoke the next day to discover that our hostel, Sabaidy 2 Guesthouse, was actually quite nice and had a great breakfast. The effort of the previous day was worth it! Our two main reasons for staying in Pakse were first, because it was as far as we could get in a day and still make it to a bed, and second, because the Xplore Asia company was in town and they specialized in adventure tours in southern Laos and northern Cambodia. We were impressed after meeting with them when they recommended that we wait until reaching Cambodia, where conditions were much better, to realize our kayaking dreams. Armed with this info, we decided to spend one day in town and buy a ticket to the 4000 Islands, in southern Laos, departing the following day.

This gave us one day to give Pakse a try. Since we really weren’t too interested in package tours to temples or river boat rides and we were tired, hot and sweaty, we decided that a pool day was in order. There were two hotels in town with a pool and our first stop was a serious luxury palace, whose front desk staff assured us, after appraising the two sweaty travelers in front of them, that their pool was closed for renovations. No matter, we moved along to option two deeper into the “real” Pakse and were treated to a nice look at life in this city. Certainly we were the only travelers in this area of town and we received a lot of curious stares. This next hotel was a dream as the pool was outside right by the river and there were no staff around to impress. We jumped in gleefully and splashed and lounged the afternoon away.

On our way back through town we had noticed some fun looking restaurants perched along the banks of the river and chose one that looked reasonably popular. We really got lucky with our choice as after starting in to our food and refreshing Beer Lao, an acoustic guitar performance began. Up until that point the music we had heard in Laos was truly terrible, like pots being banged randomly together over a techno beat and high pitched vocals. But the musicians on stage this evening were really good and you could have imagined hearing songs by artists like Bob Dylan and Credence Clearwater Revival. Our neighbours even struck up a friendly conversation with us, which led to Ben receiving an email from his new best buddy in Laos “Lord Zone”. Despite the unique name, we’re not sure that this friendship has a long term future…

All in all we had a great time in Pakse doing none of the usual things people do there. It was refreshing and another great lesson learned regarding the road less traveled. We happily boarded our minivan the next morning for the 4000 Islands, a string of little islands where the Mekong broadens in its southern approach to Cambodia. We decided again on only a one day stop to break up our journey and to spend some time checking out the area and more importantly, the hammocks. One of the ladies in our minivan actually worked at one of the small bungalow operations on the island of Don Det where we were heading and so we were inexorably pulled toward their accommodations at Paradise Bungalows. Paradise came cheap at about $4 per night and the hammock was as good as advertised, with a view overlooking the Mekong River.

After some relaxing, we set off on a walk with the lure of a waterfall at the end of the road. Since we had left this escapade a bit late in the day, the huge and threatening thunder clouds stopped our advance before the final destination. However, it was definitely fun to get a glimpse of rural life on the island.

The Don Det experience itself is actually quite touristy. When you arrive at the island’s harbour there are literally bungalows along both sides of the shore for more than a kilometre and the small harbour town is littered with restaurants mostly blasting Bob Marley and one winning the noise competition with its non-stop movies. It was fun to relax for a day in the hammocks and go into town for dinner that night for a chat with other travelers, but we had no regrets about moving on the next day and crossing the border into Cambodia.

We made it through the border that next morning, after the expected hassling and bribing, and were dropped off in Stung Treng, a place where only two other people jumped off the bus with us. We smiled, once again enjoying the great feeling of a fresh start in a little visited part of the world!

Vientiane and Konglor Cave

After landing back in Luang Prabang from our river boat trip, we picked up last minute overnight tickets on the “VIP” bus heading to the Capital city of Vientiane. Every bus company seemed to be advertising different departure and arrival times, although the pictures of the bus were certainly identical. We had previously met a travel company operator who had spent some of his youth in Toronto and so we placed our faith and bus fare in his trust – despite the fact that he thought we’d be arriving at 3:30am. Ouch. At least we got to take a tuk-tuk to the bus terminal, fun!

The bus ride turned into a completely hilarious experience. The most that can be said in defence of the experience is that at least we had reserved seats and didn’t have to battle to maintain our positions. As with a lot of transport in Laos they like to use the A/C when people are loading up and then promptly turn it off upon departure, opening the front folding doors and allowing the steamy evening air in as some sort of consolation prize. Despite connecting the two most important cities in Laos, the road was horrible, twisting and turning, and the bus staff seemed to need overnight entertainment in the form of blaring Laos rock music. To cap it all off, stops of any nature (bathroom breaks, chats, food, pickups, drop-offs, deliveries…) were made all night long.

Not the best of sleeps, but on the upside, the slow progress allowed us to arrive in Vientiane at a much more reasonable 6:30am. We were quite tired and after checking out one budget option with a dead cockroach in the room, we decided to splurge a bit on a clean hotel in the centre of town. For us, the capital city was simply a place to break up the journey to the south, so we spent our day without much of a schedule, wandering through some of the monuments and Buddhist sights in town.

In front of the famous golden Pha That Luang, the most important national monument in Laos, we found a statue that people were taking turns to approach and give offerings. Looked like the thing to do, so Ben gave a donation and tried his turn at lighting some incense sticks in front of the unknown likeness. He approached humbly and conducted his audience with due humility, but noticed some scornful stares when making his exit past the rows of…removed…footwear. Oooops! He had just disrespected what’s-his-name terribly...oh well, it's the thought that counts, right?

We arranged our next bus journey for the following morning to make our way to Konglor village, jump off point to one of SE Asia’s most amazing cave experiences. This bus ride was miles apart from our earlier overnight-mare – clean, comfy and direct. It appeared to us that the government must be making a targeted effort to get more tourists and development into this part of Laos. We arrived and found a quaint town with rice fields and typical stilt-house construction. Meeting an interesting traveler from Ecuador, we resolved to hit the cave together the following morning.

We walked through the village and into a forested area leading to the small river where boats were waiting for us to make the 7.5km journey through the dark cave. As we approached, we could tell this was going to be REALLY fun (and a bit nerve racking)!

The young boat drivers and their spotters perched on the bow of the small wooden boat wore powerful headlamps to help illuminate the total darkness of the cave. We also brought along our lights to catch a glimpse of the contours of the great, natural tunnel. Unbelievably, the waterway wound through the base of the limestone mountain in twists and turns, sometimes with the ceiling so tight you felt you could reach up and touch it and at other times opening into cathedral-like cavernous chambers that could be the home of dwarf kings from the Lord of the Rings.

Our boat slowed midway through the journey and pulled over to a sandy embankment. We all jumped out and as we groped around to get our bearings in the darkness, the spotter dashed off to the wall of the cave and with the flip of a switch, illuminated the path forward. We walked along, amazed at the shapes of stalagtites and stalagmites lit up in different colours by the creative display. This walking portion was quite extensive and gave us an opportunity to get up close and personal with the creepy cave.

We went back on the board the boat for some yelling and echo testing, until we began to see the light, the one at the end of the tunnel. We eventually emerged into bright sunshine on the other side and were greeted with the amazing sight of another similar boat headed into the cave we had just departed, filled with about 20 locals and a cow! Really. What for us was an amazing tourist attraction is simply a practical commuting option for the villagers on the other side of the mountain.

We spent a few moments checking out the other side of the cave and then spun around for the return journey. This time we decided that some music was in order to liven up the atmosphere and settled on Bohemian Rhapsody for its great opportunities to yell nonsense at the top of our lungs. We won over our Laos guides with this performance and they began making requests fore more. Ben tried to turn the tables on them by requesting some Laos music, but after seeing that they were too shy to comply he launched into his own version of Laos pop using all of the words he had learned on the trip so far. The guides found this hilarious, despite the fact that to their ears he surely sang like a three year old: “Helloooo, delicious, Beer Lao, thank you, I like, goodbye….”

Upon arriving back at the forested embankment and now obviously the best of friends, Ben was invited to join the Laos crew in a favourite national game of kick volleyball. We can’t remember the name exactly, but we can remember that it is quite difficult! Each team gets three hits to make it over the net and the game is played with a softball sized sphere made traditionally of rattan wound together, but now usually made of plastic. It does hurt a bit when making contact but the hollow centre seems to help in absorbing most of the impact. The Laoations were really nice and gave Ben lots of opportunities to make some plays and occasionally he even managed a good effort. Great fun!

Unfortunately we couldn’t stick around long as we had to rush back to jump in the 11am truck taxi taking us from the village back to the main north-south highway where we hoped to find a bus and make the very long journey south to the city of Pakse where we could again chase our dreams of kayaking along the rushing Mekong.

We smiled as we ran towards our ride, knowing that this day would likely involve almost every mode of transportation imaginable – boat, truck, bus and motorcycle. Onwards!

We also learned something very important through the Konglor experience: The cliché that “the journey IS the destination” is startlingly true in Laos. By getting off the beaten track between Luang Prabang and Vientiane and heading into the less-frequented south, we started to feel a deeper connection with the Laos people. We were beginning to understand the Laos way. They have a different mentality from their neighbours in Vietnam and Thailand, who are more business oriented – taking it easy and slow to the point where a half hour wait for meals or difficulty with arranging an activity for eager tourists is not uncommon. With this new frame of reference, we began to accept that our fate was no longer in our hands and enjoyed the experience all the more.