South-East Asia

Our last stop in Laos was Si Phan Don, also known as 4000 islands, which is the Southern end of Laos' share of the Mekong and ends in a delta of at least a couple of hundred islands, only few of them being populated.

A very relaxed atmosphere, more hammocks than inhabitants and cheap prices on everything with the exception of internet have made this place some kind of permanent stop for those who want to say good bye to civilization. Generator-driven electricity only from 6 to 10 p.m., spontaneous beach parties at the campfire,

Mekong bathing, dolphin watching, though we didn't see any - maybe the fishing boys got them before we were there. The alternative explanation was that the guys with the plastic fins on their backs work only twice a week due to strong trade union protection

Tubing was good fun, we drifted down the Mekong for 4 hours, though there were some things passing us in the water about whose origin I'd rather not think about - the canalization issue at the islands is yet to be solved...

Oddly, they had a big Lao pop party in the local temple, with Lao beer and whisky flowing excessively and 4 year old kids staying up until 5 a.m. I don't know where the monks were that evening, maybe undercover, but I had quite some trouble to imagine the same thing in a German church. The role of monks here is strange to me, anyway. I couldn't yet figure out what obligations they have to their temple, but it seems that in comparison to other religions, they have a lot of freedoms to leave their monasteries at leisure, have fun and travel around - we meet a lot of them sightseeing in Thailand and Laos, usually equipped with good photo equipment, mobile phone etc. Even met one of them playing FIFA soccer via internet in a café.

We also quickly made new friends there.

Well, that's it for here. Sabaydee Laos, Suas d'ei Cambodia!