Coincidences or not?

It seems like after I've been sick in Savanaket, everything seems to come together, in the good way. Where november and december have been tough months emotionally, from Vang Vieng everything is joy and fun. Well, there are sad moments ofcourse, there are problems to solve every now and than, but the over all balance is more than positive. Problems don't seem to be so difficult as before, I seem to take peace with a situation easier as before. It gives me the impression that after leaving Nepal, my travells really started, where Nepal wasn't really travelling, it was more being home.

On the way from Savanaket to Vang Vieng I met Kurt, an Austrian economical advisor, and it was just the start of meeting people with the weirdest jobs. Not that the jobs were actually weird, it were actually more professions I knew about but never met a person who did it. Top of this all was meeting a tree surgeon. Really, they excist, and as if I was not really convinced...I met a second one. It seems to be one of those professions that you never meet, but when you meet them, they come from all sides. Coincidence?

I travelled with Kurt, the Austrian, from Vang Vieng to more quite areas, and together we shared cold mornings in Phonesavan and Xam Nua. Although the cold at 7 in the morning was painfull somehow, I did enjoy it. I enjoyed feeling it again after months. The last cold I had felt was up in the mountains in Nepal. Writing it down I realise that hasn't been that long ago, but still...it felt like very long ago. At that moment I had like a postponed Christmas feeling. A feeling that dissapeared pretty soon, as a few hours later we were sweathing our clothes of again. Starting a trip when it's cold is not a good idea if you're not prepared for the heath that will follow . As it will be the other way around, propably. That trip in itself was a little dissapointing considering the attraction of the day: the Pathet Lao Caves, but at the end we missed the last bus back to Xam Nua. Xam Nua being located 30 km's away from the desolated place we got stranded. We kept on smiling, and started for a loooooooong walk home. A log walk that got interupted by a friendly family who offered us a ride in the back of their pick-up, all the way to Xam Nua. Coincidence?

From Xam Nua the trip took me to Louang Prabang in the most horrible saengthaw ride I ever had. 25 people in 17 places, one of the benches that broke down (and got repaired), the driver who was drinking beer, Chinese going crazy about this, and two people from Holland in the saengthaw. Actually, that last thing wasn't horrible at all, but it just comes with the things I remember from that ride. The Dutch people we Ronald and Sabrina, and it was just the start of meeting eachother again and again for the next three days. A really nice experience. In Louang Prabang I found propably the cheapest guesthouse in town, and met Robert again. Robert, an American whome I met several times before. When he arrived in Louang Prabang a few days before me, he had send me an e-mail with the adress of the guesthouse where he was staying. I only noticed this later, because at that time I hadn't checked my mail for a week. Still we ended up in the same guesthouse, again. Coincidence? Am I walking around in Bangkok a week later, who do I run into there??? Good old Bob (Robert, for those who didn't get it) Jessica, whome I met on the bus from Vientiaene to Nang Khai (take your map and see that this is where I got back into Thailaned), and who left Nong Khai one night before me, shared a train cabine with Robert the night before. Coincidence????????????

Well, coincidences or not, I met some very interesting people, all with their own stories, and each with their own interesting points of view. But most of all, I'm having a great time and saw some amazing places again. In nature, meetings, coincidences or not, there are so many little heavens on earth left, it's just a matter of being able to open my eyes, and that is so much easier when my mind is not obstructed.

The jojo traveller

Laos brought me a lot of new impressions, as every day every where does. The impressions in Laos however, were those of beautiful scenery, mixed with a lot of self reflecting, astonishment, peace, disgust, sickness, getting stronger, and refinding balance within myself. As I travelled extra km's here, to see Sara (no ofence sweetheart, it was my decision), the overall feeling of Laos will not include the far northern part of the country. It's something I don't regret, as I see it as an opportunity to make another trip over here later. My first impressions are that the southern part of the country is colder, more commercialised as when you head north in the country. This view is also based on my own feelings on that particular moments. It took me two weeks to realise that when people ask you where you're going, most of the time it doesn't mean...can I make money out of you? (as it does in so many surounding countries. A lot of time the people are just willing to show their ability to speak English, very limited skills, but it's cute and nice. When asked at a busstation, it usually are friendly people from the buscompany that just try to point you in the right direction, to make your journey as easy as possible. The further I get up north the more I start realising those things, the more I start loving this country and its people. My last day in Savanaket, I already checked out of my room to take a night bus that evening. The night before I got struck by a fever, heavy stomach aches and almost no sleep at all. I cancelled the cycling trip I had planned with some people I met the day before, and spend the whole day on the floor of the guesthouse terras more than often interrupted for an urgent toilet break. Miraculously, the next day after an 8 hour night bus followed by another 4 hours in another bus, I was cured as good as completely. As if it were a new start, I began to see things with a more open state of mind. Taking a step back from my reserved and anxious looking at things around me, the more I can absorbe the beauty of nature in this place. The surroundings are surreal sometimes. Surreal in their natural beauty. Therefor it's such a petty to me, to notice that all of this peaceful beauty is ruthely disturbed by the commercialisation for the westerners, in Vang Vieng. Taking an easy kayaking afternoon, just wandering between the high limestone hills behind the beautiful flora became impossible. Tubing, floating on the river on top of the inner tube of a truck, became the main attraction here. Tubing often goes together with lots of alcohol, and since that's what the people wanted, they even added loud music to it in the bars every 100 meters along the river. One bar being biger than the other, but to me all with one thing in common...disturbance of the natural invironement and the culture. People enjoying themselves on those places is not my complain, not at all, it's just the way it's done. Being there, I suddenly realised what the grandparents from people of my generation ment with "the devils music". This loud pumping music, together with the boose seemed to make every kind of respect for the local culture to dissapear. People dancing half naked, yelling on every tarzan swing they take flighing on a constucted rope from a tree to splash in the water, disturbing the peaceful nature that this surrounding has to offer. The jumping into the water also shows another sad thing. People doing things they rather wouldn't do, but they feel they have to hoping to belong to the group. Looking at the fear in their eyes hanging there in the air, trying to look as cool as possible makes me wander what idea this must give about westerners to the local population. Isn't it logic they start seeing westerners as walking dollar bills with only interests in status and consuming lots of alcohol? To me its also interfering in the local sociological environement in a very rude way, in a way we wouldn't accept people to do in the west. Still, we do it elsewhere. Lot's of people in the west are scared of other cultures interfering in their environement, but for lot's of them it's ok to do so elsewhere. It all happened before, wars have been fought over it, and most people hope people have learned their lesson now...but still, we do it elsewhere. This less attractive point to my opinion can not take away the beautiful feelings I got just by watching the nature revealing itself in all its beauty. Any sunset is alike, and yet no sunsets are the same. It's those little differences that make them all unique. It's not just the view of the sun that makes everything so spherical, it's also what happens around, before and after it. In Vang Vieng, if you wait a few minutes after the sun has dissapeared, you get to see an amazing view of hundreds of thousands of bats that leave the numerous caves around here and fly in big groups toward the nightly forrest life. (picture left) Really amazing, only most people don't get to see it, because after the sunset they leave for the shower, to wash of the alcohol-sweath from their body, preparing themselves for another evening of partying, not noticing the woman on the back of the truck putting on some extra ruined clothes to her little child to protect it at least a litle bit against the cooler temperatures.