Next DESTINy nATION

When I woke up at the quiet bank of the Nam Song on December 28th neither my time in Laos or my time with Ed were set. I smiled when I met Ed in the middle of the river around 11.00. "I found good bamboo". We had the plan to build a bamboo raft but as plans often seem to do it failed. When Ed was cutting the long and strong bamboo the locals protested. Nowadays with topographical maps being a rarity we looked for bamboo (or uninhabited land) on Google Earth. But the raft lost it's status as an aim when I found a letter from my Estonian friends: "Tallinn-Helsinki-Bangkok 11th of January 2008 Reservation Confirmed". I had received a new destination. I was only a night bus away from Bangkok so much time remained free.
It was the first of January when I felt an urge to walk. Ed did not so I left alone. I stopped in the book-exchange-shop to get a book of Herman Hesse I had an eye on. The book unfortunately was no longer there so I finally grabbed A Fortune Teller Told Me. Soon I would discover the value of having this book at that time. On page sixteen it quotes Herman Hesse's Siddharta I missed out on, the story kind of starts in Laos on the first of January in 1993 and gives me the information about Indochina I unconsciously was longing for. Later I would also find out that Wong had told me about the author on the farm in Japan. Tiziano Terzani was already in my notebooks.
Walking alone the regained freedom gave me an enormous feeling of joy while my companionship with Ed became part of my good memories. On my first day of walking I did not reach further then the end of the village where I found a place in a wooden cabin among the rice fields and buffalo's. The next day my feet brought me to a quiet place near the river and a small village. After sunset my fire was the only light I saw. Some locals had passed, smiled and given me something to eat. Fear comes only with the knowledge of danger. Six men including one who mastered some English came to speak to me about enemies and they extinguished my fire. For my safety they insisted I would sleep in the village or in their homes. For most of the people of the village I was the first foreigner they saw. Only once another man had passed in this little place maybe only ten kilometers away from Vang Vieng, a tourist place. Dinner was served on a small table on the cold concrete floor. The family of the English speaking man and I would eat the sticky rice and Lao vegetables with our hands watched carefully by at least forty curious eyes. The head of the village however called the 'tourist police division' who decided I could not stay. "Foreigners not allowed." They brought me back to Vang Vieng. I catched up with Ed and left again for Vientiane two days later.
There at the bank of the Mekong another great sunset made me wonder about sunsets and the conditions needed to make them so beautiful. Only hours later I would realise that I was looking for the first time at Thailand, my destination.
The only bridge to the other country was nearby but I decided to cross more south. I found my way as the only foreigner in local bus stations, exchanged some food with the bus driver and slept in Thabok, a bit out of Vientiane and then drove one more day through Laos along the Mekong. I made it to Thahek with five free rides and the help of my new hitchhiking cards. In the early evening I crossed the brown river on a simple boat and was warmly welcomed in Thailand. Leaving Laos behind me but knowing that I will be back one day. I found a man who tuned my guitar, bought a biography of Aung San Suu Kyi that seemed to be waiting for me on the table of a cosy coffee place and enjoyed the steetlife of Nakhon Phanom, a small Thai town.