Finding a Home in the 4,000 Islands

(The following events in this blog took place around June 7th- I'm a bit behind!)

My new Belgian friend Lies (pronounced 'lease') and I arrived at the Don Det Bungalows in the 4,000 Islands in Southern Laos around 4pm, relieved to finally be at our destination after 26 hours of bus travel. That said, once we checked into our bungalows , which were fine enough for an easy bag drop-off and a good night's sleep, I was not 'feelin it' there, there was not a very good or welcoming energy, it was part of the very touristy part of Don Det, and Lies told me later that the female owner of the place said something negative about the English teaching that we were going to be doing, not to mention, they were 100,000kip per night, which is about $12
(while on this trip, that has started to seem like a lot of money!) I decided that I would go scouting for a new place in the morning, as I wanted to find a place that could really feel like 'home' for the next 2-4 weeks. We had a nice dinner that evening at our guesthouse on the Mekong River, and a good night's sleep.

As soon as I awoke in the morning, I had breakfast and set off to find the nearest bicycle rental place, and got a move on. All we had seen so far was the short walk from the Pier through the touristy area of town the previous evening, a dirt road with guesthouses and restaurants and internet cafes, most with high-powered rock music or house/trance music playing - not my scene! But, I cycled a little further down the road and suddenly the road opened up into countryside farmland, rice fields, and farmers- it was beautiful! I was excited to see more of the ''real" Don Det, and as I cycled through the warm morning sunshine on this wide dirt road, passing water buffalos, farmers, and fluorescent glowing rice grass growing from the puddles and trenches, I felt very happy.

Just as I turned a corner, and realized I was about to cross the bridge from Don Det to the next island, Don Khon (which, I had originally planned on staying at due to its reputation as the 'quieter island') I saw a guesthouse just before the bridge on the right hand side of the road, with a sign advertising the 'Santiphap Guesthouse'. Hmm. It looked interesting, and I seemed to remember the name from my Lonely Planet guidebook- I decided to give it a look before continuing on to Don Khon.

There was a nice young Lao girl there named Meow who I asked how much for a bungalow- she said 60,000 (about $8) per night, and I asked if I could see the place. We walked along the riverside past the guesthouse restaurant, and it was an incredibly peaceful little strip. Another guest swung lazily from her porch hammock, and Meow showed me into bungalow number 4. From the front porch with two hammocks, to the inside of the simple but cozy bungalow, as well as a toilet inside (many bungalows on the island are cheaper than this one but you have to go to an outdoor shared toilet, usually 'squat style'), I knew this place was good. When I showed interest, she said ''I'll give it to you for 50,000 (about $6USd) and I told her I was pretty sure I wanted it but that I just wanted to look on Don Khon(since this idea had been on my mind all along).

That said, I didn't even make it four feet over the bridge on my bicycle when I stopped and realized that I didn't need to look any further- Santiphab was the place. I ran back and said ''Okay, I'll take it! But, I need to get my bag, and I also want to show my friend the place- can you take me on your motorbike, or can I borrow one?"' So- she lent me their motorbike! I was so excited, and could not drive fast enough to find Lies and tell her of our potential new home (I knew I was going to stay there whether or not she came, but, I sure hoped she would love it too!)

I zoomed on the wide country road, feeling even happier than before with a new home on its way, and happy to be on a motorbike again for the first time in a while (and also pleased and impressed with the trust of the girls from Santiphab to lend me their motorbike!) and made my way to the narrower and bumpy-lumpy packed dirt road along all of the homes and guesthouses, going 5-10km/hr until I finally rolled up to our first guesthouse.

Lies was outside at the restaurant finishing her breakfast, and I could barely contain my excitement to tell her about Santiphab. So, she finished her tea while I checked out, packed my stuff, and rode on the motorbike with Lies who carried my backback on her back. It felt quite exciting, and like a mission we were on! I'm not sure quite why, but I really didn't like the Don Det Bungalows, and so while we made our trip to and from the two guesthouses, I couldn't help but have this feeling that we were 'secretly escaping' or something! I think along the way of my travels, certain things have become quite important to me, like, loving the place I stay no matter where I am, and especially if I am going to stay somewhere longer term, it's gotta be good. Also, at Santiphab, we were RIGHT on the river in our bungalows, away from the road, whereas almost all of the other guesthouses on Don Det (and Don Khon) were across the road from the river. It just gave it a very different and incredibly peaceful feel.

So, Lies checked the place out, and she instantly agreed that it was great. I dropped off my bag, and I drove Lies back to the Don Det Bungalows for her to check out and also get her big bag. We are both very sensitive people and often feel guilty or a indebted to strangers when making decisions like this, as if the Don Det Bungalows owner was going to take it personally or be upset with us that we were checking out. . . so, we were relieved when she wasn't around for the check out part. :)

We zoomed back to Santiphab which already felt like home even though we hadn't even stayed a night there, and talked about how excited we were to hang out in our bungalows, and also the fact that we had our first meeting with the English-teaching related contact the next day, and also the fact that I was going to have to cross the Laos-Cambodia border in the next few days in order to extend my visa to stay in Laos longer to do this volunteer teaching. After dropping off Lies's bag in her bungalow, we went up to the stilted house that was the restaurant of Santiphab, and had a cup of tea to celebrate our new home, giggling at our shared excitement over everything relating to our new guesthouse- the mismatched tea cups and saucers, the kitties that were coming to greet us, and the interesting desserts that we were excited to try later that night and over the next few weeks. We had only known each other about 24 hours, but we felt very much aligned on everything so far, which is very good- we were going to be teaching together 2 days later!