Time passes through here with great difficulty. It gets stuck on stuff like trees and peoples minds. Out in the river channels you can see it gathering and sometimes, evaporating. Decades blending into each other.
Others being lost from memory.
It's about 1972 at the moment but you need to realise that tomorrow may herald the beginning of the sixties. This is due to the currents in the Mekong causing spiralling time thermals. It's all very scientific. Time doesn't totally stop here, it just slows to a sufficiently sensible and enjoyable speed, but I know through instinct that within about a mile from here it must come to a Total stand still. I'm not far away . I'm definitely close to the centre.
On my walk I discovered a new species of frog I've named it the Laos puddle frog (Puddlus Froggus Laosus). It looks like your average frog but it lives in puddles. Even on a small island like this, out in the rice fields there is a temple/monastery and a healthy scattering of stupas. If you would like to hear an understatement of the view it would have to be surreally picturesque. Regardless of what you hear, traditional Mekong village life is going on all around you and like time on the river it is blending nicely with 1972.
Of course there are signs of expansion but nothing too horrific. River life is interesting and abundant with photo opportunities. I've been to places like this before. They are very, very dangerous and if you're not careful, like time, you will get caught up too.
Speechless.
Speechless.
