YA LEUM 12–50 hours journey, North to South of Laos
One year earlier, I was at a friend’s and one of my friends spent the night convincing me to travel alone “You have to go by yourself. I am telling you, it is the best experience ever. You will never be alone; it is so easy to make friends.” The offer sounded tempting, it was not the first time I thought about it… I did not dare, until I had no option.
I asked the driver to take me to the station that would lead me until the Four thousand islands.
The Four thousand islands (Si Phan Don) consist of tiny islands dispersed in the Mekong delta, all the way south of Laos, bordering with Cambodia. Most of islands are empty, with barely any electricity. The most popular tourists’ islands are Don Det, Don Khong, and Don Khon, but do not get me wrong; even in busy period, the islands are quiet and remain the type of remote place to run away from the crowds.
I arrived at a bus station around 10.00 am. I was not sure in which station I was… since different stations go to different locations…
The station was big and not busy. I saw no international people and the only English words I could recognize was WC.
I walked around repeating Four thousand islands trying to find someone who could explain me how to get there. I started grasping I needed to travel to other city and from there get other transport to the islands… The station staff could not speak English, so between showing google maps, using google translate and pointing to buses, I realized there were different routes, schedules, and buses types. I was not even close to understand the difference between them, so I picked the time/class/route that made more sense. That bus was about to leave in 45 minutes.
I was coming from an overnight bus without proper sleeping, refreshing or breakfast. I ran to the toilet to brush my teeth, washed my face, ate something, and bought food for the journey…I just understood I would arrive in the evening to a place.
I got in a quite empty old bus, decorated in retro colors and the usual open windows. By now, you know it is my recipe for happiness. The bus took off shortly after. When I finally landed and looked outside the window, a feeling of happiness and tears invaded my soul. I felt for the first time the real meaning of wandering. I was displaced from any familiar feeling, home felt far, and solitude became tangible.
I plunged in my deepest thoughts and enlarged the boundaries of my beliefs. I expanded along.
My soul was, now, transformed into a poem with wings overseeing the entire ocean in a calm day.
The voyage lasted long. Slowly, the winds took me to new directions, and I could finally fall asleep.
I woke up. The views remained stunning, people coming in and coming out. I knew I was far from the destination. The hours passing by, new thoughts to catch.
Some writing, maybe not.
Maybe music, what if…
The solitude was there, as a new persona to invite me for dinner.
It did not feel unpleasant, it felt safe instead
I researched about the journey I was taking, still, I could not understand where I was exactly going. The bus stopped once for toilet, later to change bus. Hours later stopped in Thakek, a town with the most developed bus station I have seen so far. There was a lot of movement, I went outside quickly for toilet and to ask where exactly this bus was going to. Again, I could not find English speakers and just a few internationals going to different directions. Eventually I changed to other bus somewhere that became an overnight bus. Since I got in the bus in Vientiane, I had no international people, only locals doing short distances. Finally, a few stops later, two guys got in the bus. I felt urged to talk to them in the next stop. We stop to have dinner and I introduced myself.
Two Austrian friends, around 40s traveling together for a few weeks. Every year, they would travel somewhere in Asia together. They were also going to the Four thousand Islands. However, neither them knew how to get there and to which island they would like to go. During my research, I have thought about going to Don Khong island, more intended to backpackers. They said that could be also an option for them.
We got in the bus and nodded to each other as a sign of companionship. The lack of clarity about our destination eventually brought us together.
A few times during the night journey, we went to each other’s seat to talk about the next stop because of the stopovers along the way. Around 4am, the driver came to our sit and indicated us that was our stop.
It was 4am, pitch-dark outside, and we were in the middle of the road. There was no bus station, no bus to switch, no light, and no people outside.
We looked at each other completely puzzled.
We kept asking questions to the driver, he smiled and pointed over the dark. He kept doing signs to wait there and then again pointing in the direction of the dark. Anyways, everywhere was dark so that was not even the point.
We tried to understand where the other passengers were going, however they all left in different directions and disappeared fast.
The driver saw us completely lost. So, he made a call. They always solve problems by calling someone, somewhere.
Shortly after, another man showed up, smiling, and explaining in a broken English how to get to Don Kong, which none of us understood.
He made the follow me signal. We started moving towards the dark and I felt we were crossing an open field and we were not in the road anymore.
I trembled.
I kept smiling, but inside, I froze for a moment.
…
I was worried something could happen because I am a woman — I am small, not strong, and more vulnerable.
I looked at the Austrians, they were as worried as me, even though everyone kept talking and smiling to send the fear away.
I thank I do not know who for having found these two Austrians, the only foreigners I crossed in the last day and a half.
We crossed, what it felt the desert for me, the empty area for about 5 minutes.
When we arrived, the smiley guy pointed out at the table and chairs in front of a house, which seemed a resting area.
He called someone from inside to bring us tea and coffee and then we understood.
We were at the harbor where just locals cross to the islands. This was not the touristic harbor where everybody goes, so there was nothing but a house-shop to give the bare minimum to support locals.
He made us feel comfortable offering some fruit, water, and coffee.
Then he said — “Three hours. Wait here. Boat later, 7am “, and returned back to sleep.
The three of us started looking at each other and with a big interrogation mark in our faces, we asked ourselves “what did we do wrong in all this planning?”.
In Vientiane bus station, I tried to ask a couple of times for a bus which would not arrive in the middle of the night. As you can see, I made myself clear.
We waited and waited and waited. This waiting costed me big time! I was already traveling for almost 50 hours.
Also, my new travel buddies were exhausted, one of them was having a digestion problem, if you know what I mean. I was carrying some medicines and teas that he thanked me for two weeks.
We talked and slept, on and off, to make time goes faster. Still, we were not completely sure whether we understood the right thing, again.
Together, we trusted the smiley guy and gave up the fight against time.
We were finally living the local experience, by developing the quality of slowly moving and accepting things as they are, so known among Lao people.
Bor Pen Nyang
No worries. Relax. Accept as it is, it is nothing. Everything will be ok.
Around 7.30am a small local boat arrived to drive us to Don Khong island.
None of us realized there was a difference between Don Khong and Don Khon. Note the big difference in letter G. These are two different islands, opposite from each other. So, when I asked them to go to Don Khong, they took me to Don Khon.
After almost 50 hours traveling, 3 days sleeping in buses, I arrived to a peaceful island still living in the old classical days of Laos.
What happened next explains why I had to make a mistake with the island’s name since I ended up staying there for three weeks.
