Flow Of The River

Floating on a tube in Mekong while soaking up the sun is one of the outrageously relaxing things you can do around Si Phan Don (meaning "Four Thousand Islands") in southern Laos. The current can be tricky at some spots, but the flow of water is mostly slow, providing a perfect place to space out and relax your brain. This island, Don Det, is composed of traditional stilted houses and bungalow guesthouses along the waterfront, with the accompanying few huts of restaurants. That's about all there is here, and that's the beauty of this area, if you know what to do with the time at hand.

It was nearly five months ago when we first saw this same river upstream, in the mountains of Yunnan Province in China. The surging rapids cut and rush through deep mountains, including Tiger Leaping Gorge near Lijian. Its flow becomes a jade green hue by the time it reaches the plains of Laos. The Mekong River is wide, even during this dry season and flows ever so slowly in the eyes of a beholder. Here in Si Phan Don, there are countless islands scattered about the vast width of the river, and converge in dramatic waterfalls where fishermen cast nets into the frothy depths.

The Mekong River supports wildlife and the lives of countless Lao people (one third of Lao population lives along the river) in many ways. Locals benefit from fishing and irrigation for farm use. In recent years the river and the islands have become a popular destination for Western and Japanese backpackers and travelers. Billed as a care-free, relaxing spot, tourism has started to bring in foreign currency, though still minor compared to already developed places in the northern region. Visitors are mostly young backpackers in their 20's and 30's, who enjoy an environment without electricity and where no souvenir shops can be seen.

Visiting foreigners lay around sandy riverside beaches, float on inner tubes upon gentle streams, ride bicycles around the islands, read books, sit back and enjoy the sunset while sipping Beer Lao, or find themselves wrapped up in hammocks and dozing off. Some bungalow and restaurant businesses have petrol-driven generators, which operate from sunset to as late as 10PM. We found in-room lighting to be of nuisance, though, as tiny insects came in through the screens and flew around incessantly. Dim candlelight would have worked better.

A red ball of fire fades away into the far haze of dust and smoke of burning forest undergrowth and harvested farmland. The setting sun itself is not dramatic, without any bright colors or golden reflections. But the afterglow of sunset lingers on the sky in pinkish gray with the reflections of grass and the silhouette of locals gliding by on wooden boats, on the river's dark surface reflecting the sky.

The locals who provide bungalows and food services are also relaxed to say the least. An order of a dinner dish can take as long as two hours to arrive during busy dinnertime. With only few women in the kitchen struggling to cook everything from scratch over a charcoal fire, just three or four customers can cause panicky havoc in the kitchen. In some cases, your order might never arrive. Once we sat down in a family-run restaurant for dinner, ordering drinks and two dishes. Drinks came shortly, and we played a dice game for an hour or so. When the food didn't come, we asked them about our order. Our question met their blank expressions as they completely forgot our orders. And we were the only customers there.

Because of, not necessarily despite of, all the lack of conveniences of the modern world, we are finding the area charming and relaxing. Life is basic, simple and plentiful of time. While we feel a bit out of synch with how time passes here, this is not a bad place to just be. It doesn't take long to ease into the pace of Si Phan Don, where time flows like the flow of Mekong.