Don Det days

I have written an entry here already but I seem not to have saved it properly. I had tried to paint a picture of the place through it's pace.... very slow, very very relaxed. It is not that people are lazy or indolent. They are not! They simply choose to do things in a very relaxed way. You don't see people frustrated or angry  at the water buffaloes breaking into peoples back garden to trash the place and eat all the banana plants. They are momentarily pissed off that it has happened again! But this soon morphs into this patience. So really to the visiting falang it is all a bit of a mystery. If you can get a handle on infinite patience then you are a long way to understanding this place. I got this realisation the other day while I was watching the local boat races (Don Det won by the way!) I saw what people were doing in the context of the last 2,000 years. Not much has changed! If you remove the modern trappings; telephones, motorised boats, refridgeration and electric light, the rest is as it was. A daily gathering of food both from a local market and in the garden. The "greens " could be the usual greens found anywhere in the western world, then there are the leaves from trees complete with twigs and other greenery that seems to come from the weeds on the side of the track. These are timeless in thier origin and have been consumed here since the Khmers held sway and before. The use of the river as an active roadway. The boats start moving at daybreak and end with the sunset. There is this timeless pattern to it; the first boats at sunrise are the fishermen going to check the nets set overnight, then comes the rush hour for the market, about 7am. 2 hours later they all start coming back. The fisherman come in last as they have also been to the market to sell the fish they caught or to drown thier sorrows of a poor catch. This has gone on forever. Don't get me going about the rice. When it is planting or harvest time all the schools close because there are no kids. They are all working in the paddies next to mum, dad, sister, brother, granny, aunt, cousin and whatever There are only a certain number of families on the Island. They and the temple own all the rice fields. Everyone has a fine sense of who owns what. But the work is distributed across everyone as they manage the rice paddies as a complete system. They move the water all over by opening different walls at different times.

I have been on Don Det now for 3 weeks. In that time I have visited friends on Don Det and Don Khone, I have ridden in a boat that took me right up the river into an area they call Cam Lao, neither Cambodia nor Laos but this halfway maze of islands in a flat expanse. We stopped at a small sand island and under to cover of a tree we had a BBQ with fish cooked in banana leaves. It was delicious and the place so tranquil. There was swimming and lazing about. Very nice. We came back to a sunset that rivals any at home with the added wonder of the "mysterious East".Next door for the last 3 days there has been feasting, partying and monks praying all bloody night. Apparently the "Husband" next door died a year ago and now the wife is building his tomb/pagoda in the back garden. The whole neighbourhood turned up to help with the ceremonies. Last weekend we had the local boat races on Don Khone. Don Det won! They did a really good job. They were all in uniform, dark blue and they chanted rowing songs as they thrashed the water with thier oars. A great day was had by all.

It  is my last morning here. I have repacked my bag which fortunately is a kilo lighter as I gave Mike the pepper he ordered from Cambodia. I am waiting for my morning coffee and breakfast and being a little sad to leave all these friends and the tourists I have got to know, this place has a family of Finns staying here. Mother and 3 kids. The mum is so well organised and the kids have to be the best mannerd and behaved kids I have ever met. From here I catch the 11am boat to Nakassang. Then I catch the bus to Pakse. From there I catch a plane to Vientianne where I will get my Vietnamese visa. Then it is on to Luang Prabang. See youse later chaps.

The pictures below take you on a journey around the island. First I start with the boathouse and my "bungalow". Then I head north to the Port and then the town at the end of the island. Then I go down the sunset side to the very south of the island to the last accommodation "Shangrila". Then it is back to the boat house. Cheers.