Being Nurse to My Neighbor and Exploring Don Khon

Friday, July 30, 2010—Don Khon Island

I’m still serving as nurse to my neighbor. She didn’t do enough yesterday to try to treat her foot. For instance, she only put ice on it once. This morning I asked about a doctor, but the nearest one is in Pakse (which is 3 hours from hear after getting off the island by boat). I searched on the Internet and found a site that led me through a flow chart based on what happened and what her symptoms are. From it, she needs to use the ice and take anti-inflammatory medication. Today, I set up a schedule for her to take Ibuprofen (which I carry with me when I travel) and to use ice on her foot regularly throughout the day. She needs someone like me not just to push her to do that, but because she can do nothing away from our front porch or her room. Therefore, I went across the street to get a coffee for her breakfast. I went out to get the ice each time it was needed. It would be difficult for her without someone like me around. And I don’t see how she can leave the island until she can at least put some weight on the foot. The only way to leave is by boat, and there is no pier. The boats dock nose-first toward the grassy bank. To get into the boat involves going down the embankment, stepping onto the front of the boat, and moving down it to the seats. The only way anyone could lift her into a boat would be to walk out into water waist deep.

This is a quiet island, so there was nothing else special for me to do for the day. I did go out for a walk for about 1 1/2 hours in the late morning. Because we got lots of rain in the night, there were more puddles on the trails than I encountered yesterday. I had to turn back on one trail.

We’ve had a steady stream of people coming to the island today. All but one of the units has rented here at our guesthouse. It would have rented except for the fact that the people coming either wanted two beds instead of one big one or were in parties where they needed more than one room. I’ve been a bit surprised that a number of the people seem to be younger backpackers. This is supposed to be the island for the more mature set. One group of young women who “drug” themselves to our complex around noon (meaning that they were exhausted still from whatever they did last night), closed the door, and remained in their room all afternoon. My guess is that they will be expecting to party most of the night tonight. I just hope it won’t be in their room or on their front porch.

My current book is The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff. It is so good that I am trying to drag the experience out by reading only a little at a time. It’s based on the true story of the first man who had transsexual surgery. He was a known Danish painter. Nicole Kidman is producing a film based on the book and will play the title character with Charlize Theron as the wife he married while still a man. Having read 40% of the book already, my guess is that if they film is well made it will result in multiple Academy Award nominations. The film isn't due to be released until 2012 at the present time.

Most of my reading has been done in the hammock on the front porch. I use one foot on the floor to swing myself while reading. It’s a great day to spend a lazy afternoon with an occasional thundershower passing.

A young French couple checked into the bungalow next to us. They are nice. And they had a novel my neighbor could read to help her pass the time. They will be here for 3 days, so they can help her if I leave on Sunday as I am thinking of doing. The young man is quite interesting. His father is a researcher, so they lived in places like Senegal, Bolivia, and Austin, Texas, when he was young. He talked to me about his days at Barton Springs and his trip to San Antonio including the Riverwalk.

I helped my neighbor get her dinner ordered from across the street. Then I went down the village to a new place for mine. I sat on a deck overlooking the Mekong River. Across the channel of the river was the island of Don Dhet with the lights of its restaurants and guest houses. To the south where the river was flowing was a huge cloud bank with lightning occurring. I sat at a table with a lighted candle. I ate my food and drank my beer while enjoying the view and the isolation. I was the only customer. I don’t know where most people eat here, but the restaurants in either direction of my guest house tend to have at the most one table of diners between the hours of 19:00 and 20:00. The street lights go off at 20:00, so it becomes very difficult to see after that. My restaurant tonight was beyond the area of the street lights, so when I returned, I took off my shoes in case I should step into a big puddle from all the rain today.

My neighbor is using ice again now. She took another ibuprofen earlier and will take one at bedtime. I am hoping she will feel better tomorrow. Another of our neighbors brought some Tiger Balm for her to use, although I think that is mainly for sore muscles and may not be any help for her. It won’t hurt her, however.

Saturday, July 31, 2010—Don Khon

People here still live much like people did 150 years ago. They live in homes they have built themselves by making the woven cane sides and palm frond roofs. They still make things like baskets that they use in their daily life. They bathe and do their laundry in the river. They go to the river to get buckets of water to bring back to their homes for their needs there. They cook with wood. Their lives are modernized in that most of them have satellite TV, radios/CD players and motorcycles and most of them buy commercial clothing, some building products such as wood and certain food products such as noodles or bread. Of course, they still grow everything to eat that they can in their gardens.

I went walking for 1 1/2 hours this morning starting at 6:30. It was only the local people who were out then. They were bathing, plowing their fields, picking fresh vegetables from the garden, etc. That time of the day they usually have their privacy, since tourists aren’t out so early. I was able to take a couple of candid photos which is almost impossible to do during the daytime. Using my zoom lens and taking them before they were aware that a tourist was anywhere near, I got a photo of a guy plowing his field with a water buffalo and another of a man making a large basket.

I haven’t been able to connect to the Internet since about 20:00 last night. I am connected to the router, but I cannot get web pages. My guess is that their modem has lost its connection and needs to be rebooted. I keep trying occasionally. I just hope that they haven’t noticed me on their service and done something to block me. If so, however, I don’t think I would be able to connect to the router. I just need one of the guests over there to try to use the Internet and report the problem or for one of their employees to try to go online to check reservations via e-mail.

I think I will leave tomorrow. I had originally planned to stay here 3 days, and tonight is the third night. I’m starting to be bored here. My neighbor is still in bed as I write this at 8:34. But I hope her foot will be better and that it will continue to improve today. My fear is that she is going to want to leave when I do which I think will be too early for her. But she said yesterday she would not be able to be here without my help—going to get the ice, going to get food, etc. I am hoping she will be a bit better for moving around and decide she can handle it on her own while realizing that she needs to get better before trying to get on that boat. I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to try to get her onto and off of the boat until she can walk on her own and balance herself when walking. With a limp, I’m afraid she would rock the boat and maybe turn it over..

A man in the van coming here told me the other day that Thailand is giving 60-day visas for free from here in Laos to try to promote tourism in Thailand. When I get to Savannakhet, my next stop, I plan to go to the consulate and ask about it. If so, I won’t have to stay in Laos so long. There are more places I would like to visit in Thailand than I will have time to visit based upon the limitation of 15 days that I would normally get for entering via a land border. If I can get the free visa, I can cross back over with maybe 20-21 days remaining before my flight and not have to stretch out my time here in Laos as I had planned to do.

As I waited for the Internet to be on again and for my neighbor to get up, I had my own accident. I got my book from my room and reclined in my hammock to read. I had read no more than two sentences when I suddenly fell to the floor of the porch with a loud thud. The fall was about 1/2-3/4 meter (1 1/2 to 2 feet). I hit flat on my back with the knot from the hammock hitting on my spine between my shoulders. The back of my head also bumped against the floor. It was more of a surprise than a painful experience. I was sure that would awaken my neighbor, but she didn’t come out. Later, however, both she and the neighbors in the next-door bungalow said they heard the noise.

Since I had no hammock anymore, I decided to go down the street to where I had seen a tourist having a tuna sandwich for breakfast and ordered one for me, too. Oh, it was so delicious. She sliced a French baguette, put it in an oven to warm, then she lined it with sliced cucumber and sliced tomato. She spread lettuce and onion down the middle. Then she layered it with tuna from a tin. I sprinkled it with chile sauce and then spread mayonnaise on top of that. It was juicy and messy, but it was so tasty and refreshing!!

When I returned, my neighbor was up and was excited about her foot being better. The swelling had gone down some, and she cautiously took a couple of steps limping. I showed her the photo of my sandwich, and she asked me to go there and get her one and another bag of ice.

It wasn’t until noon that the Internet was working again. I was able to log-on and read an e-mail from Merryl telling me what the woman should be doing. The only thing she had not already been doing was putting compression on it. We didn’t have a stretch bandage for wrapping it, so she put her mid-top sneaker on the foot and laced it as tight as she could while remaining comfortable. Then she continued sitting with it raised above the level of her heart.

I spent the next couple of hours on the computer reading e-mail and newspapers and researching my next stop on my itinerary. I don’t have a guidebook for Laos. Instead, I have pages I copied and printed from Wikitravel and other online sources. The result is that I have needed maps that were not available there. For each town, I have been searching online and making my own hand-drawn maps. So I searched for Savannakhet and found a good map with references to hotels and tourist sights. I made a hand-drawn version which includes my 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice places to stay and shows the location of the tourist office, the Thai consulate (for trying to get a visa), the location of a cyber café in case I need it, etc.

As I was finishing that at 14:30, my neighbor announced that she felt like walking across the street to the restaurant for a different view and to have a cup of coffee. She made it fine on her own, so she is now improving quickly. She announced that she would be going over there for dinner tonight, too. I know she overheard me telling the owner that I would be leaving tomorrow when I paid her for tonight, so I imagine that my coming departure has been a factor in her deciding to make these excursions.

Heavy rain came around 16:15 with her still over there. I was in my repaired hammock reading. My plan is to find a place to eat tonight, reorganize my suitcase, and plan on leaving tomorrow morning on the 11:00 boat, the only one that connects to the departure of the van for Savannaket. The only negative aspect of it all is that we will not arrive there until 18:30 with only about 30 more minutes of sunlight. But with my potential guest houses marked on a map, I don't expect a problem finding my way to them so that I can choose on and check in for the night.