Ducktales

This is a story about great friendships and how you always meet friends twice in life...

Chapter 1: Meeting for the first time and becoming friends

It all started when we decided to go to Luang Prabang by Sorngtaaou instead of the slow boat. We left beautiful but sleepy Nong Khiaw on a sunny morning and boarded our first TukTuk in more than a month to get to the bus station. We got there early and secured a good-ish seat next to the door right before a ton of other tourists and locals packed with all sorts of goods jumped in behind us and swiftly filled up all the space that was left. The last one to make it on the bus was a beautifully deranged, tight up duck named Alfred (at least it looked like an Alfred). He got the spot right in front of Jens, underneath the seat, next to his feet. The two fell in love instantly: Alfred chewed on Jens’ toes and found some rest for his weary head leaning against Jens' legs. Jens found something to put all his attention to in order to ignore the beautifully off tune Lao music that filled the thick air in the little Sorngtaaou and also he had something to warm his feet with in case the weather would change unexpectedly. It was a deep friendship, built on the principles of symbiosis, trust and soulmateship. 3 hours later we arrived in Luang Prabang and the friends’ ways had to part as the duck was taken away by his owner. Alfred looked at Jens one last time as if to say: “Don’t worry my friend, all will be fine. We will meet again!”.

Chapter 2: You always meet friends twice in life

The next couple of days went by and we explored beautiful Luang Prabang. We had great iced Mochas at riverfront cafés, watched sunsets over the Mekong and visited the numerous temples that are scattered around town and are all brilliantly adorned with glittering mosaics. We climbed up Phu Si mountain in pouring rain and got washed back down on a waterslide. We checked out the Royal Palace museum and crossed the not very trustworthy bamboo bridge to the other side of the Nam Khan river.

We shopped around the charming handicrafts night market and enjoyed outrageously cheap buffets at the food street. When we just had another yummie street vendored banana-nutella-pancake accompanied by a plastic bag of freshly mixed fruit shake it happened: we unexpectedly met friends for the second time. No, it wasn’t Alfred (at least not yet) – it were Bernd and Eva whom we had parted from in Muang Khua. We spent a great morning together, getting up at 5 to see the Tak Bat: The many monks of Luang Prabang’s temples forming a line down the main street to receive alms at break of dawn. This ancient ceremony was beautiful to watch, a perfect picture with the sober colours of the early morning’s light and the bright orange robes of the big and small monks (though what made it all truly “spectacular” were us tourists, I fear). After witnessing this, we went to the morning market where we had to say good bye once again to our two fellow travellers. And right then, when the two of us turned back to the hotel for taking a nap, Jens saw another friend for the second time in his life. There was Alfred. We had reached the meat market.

Chapter 3: The life after

After this shock, we decided to take it slow again: instead of going to the Thai border by bus, we went back on the slow boat. The two day Mekong river cruise first took us to Pak Beng, a small town halfway between Luang Prabang and Huay Xai at the border. We got there after nightfall and left the next day early in the morning. We assume there was little to see other than the good Indian restaurant we went to for dinner and a relaxed beer. The next day, the boat took us to Huay Xai, a small border town and our last stop in Laos. The city was full of tourists and, quite unusual judging by all the rest of Laos that we have seen, cars - probably due to the proximity to a much wealthier country. Thailand is just across the yellow Mekong river from Huay Xai, so we had some nice dinner in watching distance of our next destination. While enjoying our last laotion food and Beerlao it occured to us that Laos is a country where we have met great people, spend a wonderful and very relaxing time in beautiful surroundings, explored great cultural treasures in the most rural main city in all of southeast asia we have been to so far - in short: we fell in love with Laos. So of course we will come back, 'cause as we know now: you always meet friends twice in life.