Woodsmoke and steamed sticky rice greet you as you step off the bus. Someone hands you a warm woven basket of it, and you pull it apart with your fingers like everyone else. Past the road the Mekong slides by, wide and brown, while a card game carries on in the shade.
The climate is tropical monsoon, so you meet either warm rain and green hills or clear dry skies with cool mornings. Either way the plans stay loose. Your Local Friend tells you when to set out early and when to linger by the water, then follows wherever the afternoon goes.