Don Det Notes, Continued

With my last post, Bière de Route (Road Beer) blog just went past 7,000 views! I would celebrate with a Lao-Lao shot...

I was supposed to call Ken today at 8pm (8am one day in the future for him) but Skype wouldn't open... Bo pa nyan.

Without wasting further time:

Friendship Bracelets

When you do something nice for someone here in Laos, they tie a little colourful string bracelet to your wrist as a way to say thank you. I noticed that trend in Cambodia too, to a lesser degree. I really like the concept.

I got my first bracelet (pink) in Angkor Wat after praying to a Buddha statue and making a donation. A Cambodian woman, all smiles, grabbed my arm before I could leave and tied skillfully the string while chanting softly.

I got a head rush from the sheer spirituality.

During my Bolivan plateau loop I stayed in a bungalow by the side of a small, quiet river. The place was very clean and calm and left a nice impression on me.

When I checked out at reception (a desk under a bamboo roof) the next morning I took the time to thank the staff for their welcome and told them how nice their place was.

The lady seemed very happy with my remark: she let out a very american "awwwww", grabbed a small straw pot hanging from the ceiling, reached inside and produced 3 bracelets, 2 bright yellow and 1 half yellow and half brown, which she tied softly to my wrist. She then joined her hands together to her chin and said a cheerful "Kup Chaï Laï Laï" (Thank you very much) to which I replied by joining my hands together up to my nose - the respectful height for a salute to someone older than you - and repeating my best Kup Chaï... they apparently don't have a word for "You're welcome".

I think the mother of the family actually makes them herself and to me it makes them even more significant and symbolic.

I received a lot of those bracelets while attending Don Det parties and weddings (there seemed to be one every week) and sometimes had to take them off because they were tied too loosely. At some point Ken remarked that I was starting to have a lot of them and compared me to Manni, a man from England that had been on the island for 2 years and was pretty much running Happy Bar.

"Have you seen Manni's arms? He has so many friends! So much time for so much friends".

On my last day on Don Det I was eating at the neighbors' restaurant (which had become tradition since I was feeling guilty at making Ban cook for me during her ever-rare time off) when I announced to them that I was leaving. The mother of the family seemed very sad and gave me another 3 bracelets and we took family pictures. The eldest daughter came to me and talked very softly in Lao for a minute - the grandma seemed intent on us getting wed one day - and the kids all laughed.

4 days ago I cut loose my bracelets. I was still carrying most of them to the point where I have a paler spot on my wrist where they were. I had to cut them because I got a new job dishwashing at a friend's bar and I didn't want them to get ruined by the constant water.

They had been a constant reminder of my good times now past and the ones to come as I sometimes struggle to get up in the morning.

Chiang Mai jour je sais plus trop

Thanks to everyone for the kind words, you are the main motivation that pushes me to keep writing.

After a few party nights and technical mistakes from the Blogger app I finally have the time, and mindset to spoil you all with my brain candy. I hope.

I do not have the patience, memory nor battery power to write with as much detail as I wish but I am going to try and recap my days quickly and efficiently, like a ninja that chose the pen rather than the sword.

The 1st day my priority was to book a room because the King's birthday was going on the next day and it was going to be hell, or so I thought.

My first stop, Julie's guesthouse, was fully booked. I did not know however that their commonroom was going to be my meeting point every day, and I would soon meet very cool people there, day in and day out.

I went to the neighbors, J.J's and they had dorms for 100 bhats a night, so I booked 2 nights, ample time to let me find something else. I'm a little bit paranoïd to get stuff stolen from dorms that's why.

In their common room I try to connect to their Wi-Fi to look for something to do but it's not working. The girl next to me is on her laptop so I ask if she got it to work. She answered in the frenchiest english I have ever heard and so I switch to french.

She also booked for 2 nights in dorms but prefers rooms, so we decide to go shop for rooms together. She said I have a good vibe and trusts me enough to share a room with 2 single beds that we find at Tawan's Guest House, and reserve for 3 nights.

We then go for a walk. There seems to be a Buddhist temple every few meters. We end up walking 3 hours and visit about 15 "Wats".

I wanted to chill with the people I met on the train and taxi earlier so I went back to Julie's and there I met them all, speaking with Dominic, a guy from London, super laid back and a fellow geek. We end up having many drinks. He is confined to Julie's against his will... A spider bite has morphed his foot into this swollen mess of blue and purple, and pus comes oozing out of a hole the doctors made.

No superpowers yet.

The next days become a mash-up of visits to temples, scooter rides, and drunken wandering, toppled by new aquaintances. I learn that there is a reggae festival on the 11th so I decide to reserve until the 12th.

Notable moments:

Playing a drinking game with germans, dominic, and canadians, as Julie's common room get flooded by people: it's King's birthday and bars can't sell beer until midnight. Julie's does however still sell the beverage, and so it gets very loud very quickly.

We chase all the girls away by having debates on who is the coolest jedi, the most dangerous sith (videogames included), if we would bang a twi'lek, and doing our best immitations of TETSUOOOOO! KANEDAAAAA!

Me and Mathilde rented a scooter for 2 days, a nice little 150cc to be able to go up in the moutain that always looms west of Chiang Mai. the road up is snaking slowly and steepily, but it was very fun to drive. The first day we visited a sacred temple in the mountain, and enjoyed one of the most spectacular mountain views of my life.

We also visited a hilltribe but I felt like I was at a human zoo and wondered if they actually liked people just walking in their village and taking pictures of their kids, and left as soon as I was done playing with 3 puppies.

Going back down the mountain we spotted a sign pointing us to Chiang Mai and took it for a shortcut and were in for a surprise. The road was barely big enough for a car, and was a mess. Mud, sand, water, patches of concrete, rocks... And we figured we had an hour of sunset left.

We made it through in the end, ended up on the side of a beautiful lake with little huts built on the banks. We had a well-deserved beer and went back to Julie's for more chaos.

Ben and Jen want to go for a fruitshake now. They are pretty cool and laid back. I will finish this later.

"Not all who wander are lost"