Don Det, one of the 4000 Islands (Si Phan Don) - Big fun on a small island

The trip down to the Southern most tip of Laos was not well organized, to say the least.  We took an overnight bus to Pakse, where we were lucky enough to be put in the back where there was half the room as in the front (although away from the bathrooms which actually was a plus). We arrived in Pakse in the early morning, having barely slept in our child sized bed we were sharing (should have bought the bottle of Johnny when we had the chance!) We then switched to a van, which drove us most of the rest of the way, to the "pier", a currently forming pile of rubble and dirt that should be a pier in a few months. The tour people attempted to up sell everyone, and would have succeeded had it not been for our stubborn asses-everyone else took the bait. We opted to keep going to Don Det, and not pay more to go to another, further island, which we later found out was more expensive and not as much fun (suckers!). But we payed for that decision later. The boat ride was amazing. A small boat carted us across the Mekong, which in this area is very wide and dotted with tons of small islands which at this point in the year can be small enough to house just a single tree if not fully submerged.

The boat took us to the wrong side of the island (which we believe they did because we didn't get up sold). We found out later that there is a normal beach where the tourists get dropped off, near all of the guesthouses and hotels, but we were not so lucky. We were surrounded by locals, none of whom spoke English, and were barely lucky enough to find one who understood the word "bungalow", and pointed us in a direction along the riverfront. We chose to believe, because we had no other option, and walked in the direction she pointed. We balanced our packs through rice paddies and locals houses.  About ten minutes later we saw the first decent bungalows (the ones we had actually found online), and were disappointed to find out they were full. We then found decent accommodations down the street overlooking rice fields and a lotus plantation.  Still, we came back to book the nice place (hot showers) for the remainder of our stay. The owner was a wonderful, cooky Brit named Peter who was obsessed with classic rock and lived most of his life in India.  He was a kind, fascinating, old chap.

The main "street" was really just a five foot wide dirt road shared with many dirty dogs, chickens, mangy cats, water buffalo, a few motorbikes and many tourists on bikes. Oh and there was a pet monkey on a string that I let crawl onto my hands and it bit me (Devon)!  She thougth my bracelet was fruit and was pulling at so I tried to put her back on the fence and that's when the trouble started.  She has had all her shots, but Breen keeps telling me I have incurable monkey pox.  It was worth it to feel her little human-like hands and feet on me.
 

Don Det was a strange place, but had a certain charm to it, though the locals seemed lazy and quite disinterested in serving any white people ( it often felt like an "f-u," though we understand as they have been quickly inundated with many tourists recently).  We spent a lot of our time at the restaurant by the tiny beach/pier in hammocks and met a wonderful group of people our first night and formed a crew that was much fun.  We shared some whisky and Beer Lao and drunkenly decided we should all go kayaking together the next day.  Which is just what we did.  There was a trio from South Africa (Andre and Nikki -who also recently got engaged, and entertaining, talented, aloof Brizi), a wonderful, jolly gent from Wales named Garreth, and a funny, musical, fellow Californian from LA (Brady).  We all got along swimmingly and had an amazing day on the Mekong with our humerus French guide Jean.  We kayaked through sunken forests, saw two of the largest waterfalls in SE Asia, swam at a beautiful beach, got stuck on a sunken tree in the rapids (thanks Brizi), and illegally crossed the border into Cambodia where we ate lunch and watched the very rare and endangered Irrawaddy river dolphins breach. On the way back from Cambodia we had to cross the Mekong at it's widest and discovered that there are jumping water spiders that enjoy hopping on kayaks (that's right, fricking JUMPING WATER SPIDERS... tons of them).  As you may have guessed, Breen and I did not enjoy this very much and freaked out a bit, whacking our paddles against our boats and screaming like little girls, becoming the butt of some well-deserved jokes.  But we survived (and didn't even capsize!) and have conquered some of our arachnophobia! It was one of the best days of our entire trip. Though it ended on a bit of a sour note when we saw a bad accident on the road, dead bodies and all.  These roads and the way people drive here scare me.

The next two evenings we spent with our wonderful new friends and another gent we met at a bar, a doctor from Switzerland named Flo.  We played music (Brady had a guitar) a few different nights.  One night, Brady and I entertained the local crowds into the wee hours of the morning (even after all the bars shut down at 11pm).  We laughed a lot, played pool, and drank buckets of Lao Loa whisky together.  It was quite fun.

We also ran into this wonderful Austrian couple whom we had met back in Chiang Mai.  We ended up going out to Indian food our last night and sharing many bellies full of laughs.  We also had a lively discussion about renewable energy solutions!

Though the water was a muddy brown and the locals didn't like to return smiles much, it was a beautiful place and an amazing part of our trip.  We are so glad we met the fellow travellers that we did, as they were the ones who made it special.

Then it was off to Cambodia...

Love,
Devon and Breen