I had about 15 days until my flight left Siem Reap for Hong Kong, before I decided to leave Siem Reap with a few Swedish guys I met to cruise around Laos for a week. I figured I could travel through Laos, see the major stops along the way, get a feel for the country, and still make it back to Cambodia around 10 days before I left. Laos was the last country in SE Asia I hadn’t stepped foot in, so I felt like it only made sense to see it, even briefly.  

On the way to the boarder with Laos, I started seriously wondering if I would get into the country. My passport doesn’t have any free pages left, and I wasn’t sure if Laos issues a full-page visa like many countries in Asia. I asked the cute French girl next to me what she thought, and after paging through my passport, she didn’t exactly reassure me. We chatted and laughed about life and travel for a while, and then she dozed for most of the ride. 
After our lunch stop she got switched to a different bus to head to Kratie, to see the rural Mekong lifestyle and the river dolphins there. I had never heard of Kratie but it sounded really interesting (dolphins are sort of my spirit animal), so I joked with her that maybe I would see her there in a day if things didn’t work out for me. As the saying goes, every joke has some truth to it, and this loose backup plan made me feel better about my passport situation.  
At the boarder, it took about 2 minutes for me to realize I wouldn’t get through. Not only does Laos issue a full page stamp, the Cambodian visa is a single entry, so I would need another full page stamp to get back into Cambodia, which there was definitely no room for. I said goodbye to my Swedish friends, goodbye to Laos, and went to sort out what I was going to do for the night as the sun was quickly dropping.  
I found a guy who had a scooter and also happened to managed a travel company, so after 15 minutes of trying to negotiate with absolutely no leverage and no other options, I paid the guy $10 dollars to drive my 15kms to the closest town with a guest house, and another $20 for a bus the following day to make an extra stop there specifically to get me, then to take me to Phnom Penh. I spent the night as the only guest in this confusing guesthouse, which appeared to exist entirely for people who end up in my situation. Nobody in the one street village spoke English, and they seemed a bit terrified by me when I did, motioning for me to go away and speak English somewhere else when I tried to buy something. I managed to feed myself using lots of crude sign language, and I spent the night reading a Tom Robbins book and watching movies.    
In the morning, the bus picked me up almost two hours later than planned, because the “bus broken” as I was informed, when I called the guy who organized my personal pickup in the middle of nowhere. When I finally got on the bus, I stood next to my bag and next to the driver bouncing around the front of the bus for two hours, because $20 dollars was enough to get them to stop for me, but apparently not enough for an actual seat.  
On the way towards Phnom Penh I started thinking about dolphins and the French girl, Margot, who I met the day before. I felt a warm curiosity and a strong pull towards her. I find that when I’m traveling my instincts with people feel sharp and first impressions can tell you a lot about somebody. I knew she would almost certainly still be in Kratie, and I even remembered the name of the place she said she was probably going to stay – The Silver Dolphin. When the bus made its stop to let some people off to “change bus” for Kratie, I lied to the bus driver and said that’s where my ticket was for, and decided to spend a few days there and maybe see if I could find Margot, or at the very least, dolphins.  
From the middle of Kratie where the bus let me off along the Mekong delta, I was told by a tut-tut driver that the silver dolphin was a 5 minute walk up the road. I checked into a dorm and threw my stuff around the bed. I walked up to the rooftop bar and towards the front to check out the view of the river. I stopped when I saw a familiar face having a drink at a table. We made eye contact, and we both smiled, then Margot laughed as she said, “What are you doing here? What happened to Laos?”