To Cambodia and Back

On Friday morning I woke up early, got breakfast, and hopped on a private boat that I had hired (for about a dollar more than going to the main pier) to take me directly from our guesthouse to Ban Nakasan to meet Mr. Khan, the Lao man who was going to take me by motorbike to Cambodia and back to extend my Lao visa.

All went off without a hitch- we drove about 20-25 minutes to the Lao-Cambodian border, I went through a series of offices to leave and re-enter the country (as well as paying $10 more than all the usual fees which I quickly realized was a bribe since my leaving and re-entry was 'special' as the Cambodian officer put it) while Mr. Khan patiently waited for 45 minutes or so, watching television with some locals at one of the food stands, and when I was done, he zipped me back to the pier. The whole time this all went on, I had an irrational paranoia that I was going to be scammed somehow by Mr. Khan, just because he seemed a bit strange sometimes, and was charging me a price that seemed far too low. But, my paranoia proved groundless, and, when 5 minutes from the pier he picked up a small girl from the side of the street who turned out to be his loving daughter, I realized even more that this was just a nice man, offering me a fair and decent price, and I was grateful. I waved to the girl when she hopped off the motorbike a few minutes later down the road, and she waved with a sweet smile back.

The whole trip from the pier and back was 2 hours! I showed my gratitude to Mr. Khan by paying him 50,000kip instead of the 30,000 he had asked for, as well as a handful of Rambutan fruit (one of my new SE Asian favorites) and a small plastic packet of two cigarettes that I had bought in Vientiane for situations just as this one. He smiled and laughed and seemed quite pleased at the extra tips, and it was a sweet and smooth transaction and morning altogether.

I was back in Don Det by 11am, and after having a nice lunch together, Lies and I decided to take advantage of the afternoon and decided to find the 'Li Phi' waterfalls that were so well known off of Don Khon island, as well as to find 'the beach' that everyone around here talked about. We had a wonderful and relaxing afternoon of taking photos of the impressive waterfalls, followed by some unexpected shopping on my part at the nearby vendor stands for cool gifts and Lao-style pants for myself with Lies as an excellent shopping-support friend, and finally finding 'the
beach' which was a tiny strip of sand at a very small and uniquely calm pool formed just off of the main flow of the Mekong river. We spent hours swimming and wading and talking and drying in the sun sitting on large rocks that jutted out of the river-pool. Other tourists came and went, and knew we'd be coming back here again soon.

That evening after dinner, we shared a chocolate rice-pudding with bananas while cuddling the Santiphab kitties in our laps, and talking with anticipation about our first day of teaching that we would be doing the next day, as well as setting up our private boat from our guesthouse. Nothing but excitement on Don Det!