The Best Part of the Day

Luang Prabang – Laos June 23

My granddad used to be fond of saying that I was missing the best part of the day by waking up at the ridiculously late hours of 8 or 9 am. Sitting here this early morning in the cool calm of a deserted garden over looking the muddy Mekong River, I know that he was right.
The cloak of green that seems to be draped across all of Laos is prevalent here. From my vantage point on a simple bench I am overshadowed and surrounded by bamboo, teak and frangipani.
Below me a city comes to life. Luang Prabang is no bustling metropolis but like any good city by a river it supports commerce and trade for an entire region. But at this hour the heat hasn’t yet baked the streets to an uncomfortable dirty brown or driven the locals far into their homes and shops. Dogs bark and the ever-present tuk-tuk motors kick into life. Even as I write this, the peaceful ease of a moment ago fades away.
At times like these, more accomplished individuals would contemplate life and it’s meanings but instead I contemplate things like why God made mosquitoes and whether or not ants get a day off. I take a look at myself - the thin-soled broken-then-super-glued sandals, the cheap and ill fitting Thai fisherman pants, the used-to-be-white shirt and the unprofessionally bandaged finger – and I feel I’m in real danger of becoming the typical Southeast Asian backpacker. After 5 months on the road, I suppose it was inevitable.
A hammer starts up in the distance and a Japanese family strikes the standard tourist pose on the stone wall beside me Watching the lazy brown water of the Mekong in the distance being traversed by longboats, I know that the ‘best part’ of the day is dying fast. So I tip my hat to the morning Nature gave me, lather on some more sunscreen and turn to face the day.

A walk along an old stone wall
In a land I’ve never known
Its familiarity grows on me
Like the dates carved in the stones
A trodden path, a fallen flower
A leaf painted all in green
Little ants march to and fro
Such simply, forgotten things
After a million miles and stories too
Its here today I stand
I’ve traveled so far, you see
Just to find I’m home again