And another early morning and bus kind of day...only five hours and then a seriously overloaded songschew down the final trek to champusak and village quietude upon river once again. And tomorrow off to wat phou and, probably, si phan Don the day after and that's the journey through Laos almost at an end, for the moment at least Think that a few days on the islands and then off to Cambodia...

Tonight was a shadow theatre show, in Laos with French explanation, oops...but it was the ramayana Asian style so that was okay...oddly I'd been at an exhibition of this in wien, connected to klimt or schiele, who knows which...so another odd echo upon the year. And it was entrancing; once again music, a group of about a dozen local musicians...imagination needing little more in the way of translation or explanation, was content to wander it's own plot. As ever.

And another landscape, changed now, hills lessened into distances as plains carry the river south. But it's beautiful and so it continues as it has from the first day to bewildered eye, there's something special about this land and its people. Listening to the rice grow indeed; it does slow you down, allows space just to smile, realising that non standard time is alive and well...and it's not been long enough. There are places to return and places missed; maybe a smaller rucksack, a uke and a local variation on a 125...