Three straight days of travel to get where I am, in the middle of northern Laos. One day by minivan to the border town of Chang Khong and two full days on a long uncomfortable "slow boat" ride down the Mekong. The seats made from 2 narrow planks of wood and the boat so full some people sat on their packs or lay on the metal roof above. It was slightly degrading, an over-packed boat of sweaty tourists. The other option were the speed boats zooming by, doing the same trip in only one day. Those passengers wore helmets, either to protect their ears from the screaming engine or their heads in the likely event of flipping. Perhaps our boat wasn't so bad!
During the many hours of having absolutely nothing to do and no desire to try and speak over the loud engine, I remembered the recent words from the monk, "Keep your body and mind together, always in the present moment." Instead of wishing for the future (to get off the damn boat), my thoughts focused on nature's images before me and I condured several strings of descriptive lines for each tiny event. In total concentration, I ended up in the most relaxed state I can remember myself being for a long time.
Patches of bright sand dotted with planted clumps of greens. The edge a dune spilling strings like sand timers into pointed mounds below. Contrasting the steep highlighted ridges of horizontal shadows...
Fat, healthy cows, submerged in the river or lying on the bank. No movement except ears twitching, flicking off flies. Goats roamed the steep hills in white, black and beige...
Women wearing red sarongs walking in one's or two's. Carrying filled baskets on bamboo across their shoulders. Seemingly nowhere, far from any village...
Children rowed dug-out long boats and bathed by slanted, layered, rocks. Tiny silhouettes holding inner tubes watching us from the beach...
Men standing in boats, or waist-high in the water. Throwing white nets into hollow, momental forms. Organizing wood to build a new boat...
The distance highlighted with wirey, white trunks. Glowing against the dark jungle's interior. Stalks of bamboo in circular patches, arched outwards and upwards, softened with foliage. Thousands of species, vines and trees, entangled together in a connecting leaf canopy...
Yellow leaves sprinkle in the wind. Falling and flickering like families of butterflies. Some rocks were purple, like moss only on the West side. More colours stand out, new shapes approaching. I could go on forever describing this land. P
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