Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Don Khong Island


Due to the lack of chickens here or sunlight blaring through my windows (although my room has 2 windows, the shutters on both are closed from the outside, which made it a bit difficult to sleep last night due to the lack of airflow in my room, but was a godsend this morning!) I managed to sleep in until 8am!

It never really occured to me to make the connection before ( I just put it down to the heat disrupting my normal sleep patterns and thus causing small bouts of sleep rather than one long deep sleep) but I reckon there may be some truth in what Bianca said about the doxycycline causing vivid dreams. Back home i rarely even remember my dreams yet here i often wake up recalling the bizarre and sometimes disturbing thoughts and images from my previous night of slumber. Only last night remember trying to wake myself up because i was convinced there was someone in my room. I managed to do this and i had to switch the light on to allay my fears.

I wandered down to Pon's Guesthouse to enquire about the arrangements for the boat across to Don Det Tomorrow and stopped there for breakfast after doing so. I contemplated the Lao option of rice soup with fish but settled for a fruit salad and some lemon juice, whilst soaking up the serenity of my surroundings : the whir of the tiny motorboats on the river, the cheerful chatter between the birds in the trees, the distant voices of children from the nearby school and the distinctive sound of the odd gecko making its presence known.

I spent the afternoon walking around the grounds of the temple at the north end of Muang Khong, puzzling water buffalo down by the water's edge, using the internet on the only computer on the island (at 1000KIP per minute you pay for this priviledge) and sunbathing on the decking opposite my guesthouse, whilst listening to children splashing around in the water below me.

I ate dinner at a restauarant next door to Pon's with Tina and Ben (a Canadian guy Tina met yesterday). Ben must be the only person I've seen to eat an entire papaya salad and not break out a sweat. Not only did he eat all of it but he ate it with the speed and gustor of someone who hadn't eaten for days!
Photo is of temple, Don Khong.

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