Don Khone To Bangkok
I was invited to go net fishing with a local man that just wanted to show me what it was all about. I met him around 4 pm when his ferryboat job was done for the day. I hopped on a motorcycle with a side cart that I sat in and we cruised around half the island where there were no tourists just Lao locals. There were no hotels, no guesthouses, no restaurants, nor shops. Houses lined the inland side of the dirt path and palm trees lined the otherside next to the waters edge. Behind the houses was a steady green and brown of dry rice paddies waiting for the eminent rainy season. It has already started the week before and is going to continue. The road was still puddled from the rain the night before and the night before that when we were all drenched going home with lightening lighting our way.
It turned out that ‘Tiger’ took me back to a restaurant in seemingly nowhere next to a waterfall that I had been to with my English friends. Then we crossed over the suspension bridge and on down the road a ways to another larger waterfall with spacious swimming holes at its base.
This is where I sat and watched Tiger toss his net. There isn’t a lot of fish at this time of the year but when the Mekong rises 3 meters fish come rushing up river to the base of these waterfalls and no further. Fish ramps have been erected to catch fish as the water rushes and ebbs with the rains up stream.
I followed him into the water and swam around with Tiger’s nephew while Tiger threw his net, donned his mask and looked under water to see if he had caught anything under his net. Around the edge of the net were small weights and a leader string. The net is thrown and spread in the air and drops to the bottom disabling fish in the process. The mask is to see what is struggling underneath the net.
We didn’t catch any fish so we ended up ‘banking’ once again but it was worth the swim and Tiger and his nephew had brought a cooler full of beer and a cooked fish on a platter so we could eat something and chilled out while the sun went down and out of sight.
The 8 year old nephew gave me a lift back to my guesthouse on the motorcycle with the side car followed by Tiger giving instructions on how to keep the bike and myself on the dirt path and not in the drink. The kid was stressed and that made me stressed but I was prepared for the worst. When we got to the guesthouse I surprised the boy with a 10,000 kip tip. The smile on his face was priceless.
A little while later Tiger picked me up on his motorbike and he took me under the bridge and on to Don Det to see some of his friends and sing Karaoke. Of course that is not my forte, I have the singing voice of a garbage disposal.
The night ended in good cheer and a long motorcycle ride back dodging puddles and staying on track.
I had a leisurely morning on Don Khone watching the Mekong River as the sun bloomed. Eventually I had to make a move to the ferryboat and catch a bus to Pakse. Pakse is only a couple hours away and the town is rather dull at the moment. The big excitement is that the Lao government is reconstructing the roads and it is disrupting traffic rather well.
I flew back to Bangkok and was smacked in the face with traffic due to the on going protests. These groups are serious about getting rid of corruption but I fear one corrupt family will be replaced by another form of corruption. I’m convinced it’s how things are done over here; it’s in their customs, it’s part of their way of life and not actually corruption until it becomes part of the government. It appears to work rather well in the United States and other countries as well. It appears to be part of our negotiation process to get things done versus the slow methodic bureaucratic way. I’m not saying it’s right, I’m just sayin’.
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