No Problem

Day 89: Don Khon (LAO). Following the Mekong through three countries, the area of Si Phan Don sees the widest point of this mighty river's 3,000 mile journey from the Tibertan Plateau to the South China Sea. In places the river here reaches over nine miles across, dotted with countless islands and islets – hence it's name, literally meaning: 4,000 Islands.

And this place was without a doubt the most laid back of any of the countries we had visited so far. Laos' national psyche is to take it easy. 'Too much work is bad for your brain', is a commonly held notion amongst it's people. Indeed because of this, education isn't highly valued here with the locals feeling sorry for 'people who think too much'! And as we sat and watched the slow pace of live unfold from the wooden verandah of our little river front bungalow, drinking a few bottles of the mind blowing Beerlao, who were we to argue with such sentiments!

So chilled out was life here on Don Khon that it felt as if the entire island could have gently drifted downriver into Cambodia and barely anybody would have rolled out of their hammocks to take a look. With no motor vehicles, no hawkers and no hard sell, this part of Laos was markedly different from the other parts of Indochina that Karen and I had travelled through. During their colonial years the French eloquently captured these cultural differences: “The Vietnamese plant rice, the Cambodians watch it grow and the Lao just listen!”

At the point when our pulse rate was about to drop into single figures,we decided to embark on Don Khon's extreme sport of 'cycling slowly around the village'! Finding a charismatic couple prepared to hire us a couple of bicycles; the old man puffed on a reefer-sized rollie as he adjusted the seat, checked the tyres, waved us on our way and whispered, “Baw pen nyang.” No problem!