Comforting my OCD tendencies but entirely unplanned, I realise the first of January is exactly the half-way point of my trip.
Out on the street, when I'm finally mobile and ready to venture out, local girls ride by on their scooters with umbrellas shading their delicate features. How lovely.
I walk down through town to the same bar we were at last night as last year finished. During the day it's a quiet place, with shaded hammocks overlooking the river and those hills which still stun me every time I see them.
This town really isn't big, and Chris and Lauren and Ross are all here, already set up in their hammocks, nursing their sore heads. I climb into a hammock next to Ross, and as I get through more of charming Stephen Fry's wonderful memoirs, I also talk to Ross, well, he talks to me. He used to be a consultant for Big Pharma but after getting sick of the gig and how it conflicted with his own morals, he threw in the towel and set sail, as it were, to see the world. I'm inspired to backpack South America after hearing his stories of Peru, Bolivia, Ushaiai, and other places usually so far from my thoughts.
I'm starting to worry that Chris and Lauren actually like Craig, but as they start to feel perky again, and in Craig's absence (he's continuing his seduction of Karina the Norwegian up in a hot-air balloon, I'm not kidding) they tell me, diplomatically, what they think.
"You know, that Craig, god he can be annoying. But he's been through a lot, you can't blame him, sounds like that girl really screwed him. I wouldn't ever hang out with someone like that, but he's a nice guy, he means no harm".
I guess they're right. In most other circumstances I wouldn't seek out his company either, but he hasn't done anything wrong, I do hope the hot-air balloon ride pays off for him.
We get some dinner and the restaurant plays an eclectic soundtrack to our meal - Puccini, Tu-Pac, Adele, Eminem.
The day's almost done, it was spent lazily gazing from a hammock at the river and the hills, and a fruit shake on my walk back to the guest house makes me feel recovered finally, and I look forward to my next stop, my first stop on this second half of my trip and the place in Laos I've been looking forward to the most, Luang Prabang.
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| Those hills, and Craig in his balloon |
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