12
November, Vang Vieng to Kasi, 53km
Da(r)ling Guest House 90,000LAK
“Lucky
fish!” I am not a fan of “lucky”*, but that is the refrain I heard in my head
today on the road to Kasi. To be surrounded by so much beauty felt like a
privilege, felt “lucky”. Our road, route 13, followed the Nam Song river
upstream to its source, then picked up the Nam Lik which we first encountered
as a much broader river a few days ago. The rivers are brown, sometimes green,
flowing strongly to the south. They are framed by dramatic, jagged peaks,
either craggy, exposed rock or densely covered in green, green forest. Above, a
blue sky with white clouds trying their best to hold the intense heat at bay.
The Lao are beautiful too, exhibiting an unconscious grace and elegance. We
were delighted by the scores of school kids cycling to school on ancient
sit-up-and-beg bicycles, a colourful umbrella held aloft, bright in sunlight.
We saw four small boys, brown and naked, chasing each other in a rural garden,
wet with the water sprayed from neon water pistols. We saw men and women taking
bucket baths on the side of the road or in their yards where water flows from
the mountainside down a rickety bamboo pipe, both genders modestly clothed in
sarongs. We saw a man squatting beside an old bomb casing and a woman gently
rocking a toddler in a bamboo basket. A lovely day.
* Aside from the big things over which we have no
control, I think we make our own “luck”. Each decision Charl and I have taken,
each action, each choice, each trade-off, inevitably resulted in us being on
the road to Kasi today. I was “lucky” to be born a woman in the 20th century
rather than in any previous century, I was “lucky” to be born into a more
liberal environment rather than an oppressive one, I was “lucky” to have
middle-class parents rather than poor. But being here today is a result of
design not luck.
Between Vang Vieng and Kasi
Between Vang Vieng and Kasi
Between Vang Vieng and Kasi
Between Vang Vieng and Kasi
Between Vang Vieng and Kasi
Between Vang Vieng and Kasi
Between Vang Vieng and Kasi
Between Vang Vieng and Kasi
Between Vang Vieng and Kasi
Between Vang Vieng and Kasi
Between Vang Vieng and Kasi
Between Vang Vieng and Kasi
Between Vang Vieng and Kasi
Between Vang Vieng and Kasi
Between Vang Vieng and Kasi