Si Phan Don (Four Thousand Islands)

We left Vientiane on an overnight sleeper bus and arrived in Pakxe in Southern Laos the following morning. The bus had been a bit on the expensive side and when we saw it we quickly understood why - anything which claims to be "King of Bus" has to be good.


The minivan to Si Phan Don was tedious as the driver made a series of errors which saw us having to spend several hours at the Cambodian border before being dropped at the wrong dock, Don Kong instead of Don Khong (why name two places close to each other like this?!) back in Laos!. Short on cash and on patience we negotiated a reasonable deal for a boat which involved a stop at a money exchange en route to Don Khong.

We arrived at Don Khong in the afternoon. Thanks to our driver we had completed a 20 hour famine before we managed to eat lunch. Don Khong is a nice island catered towards the more mature tourist. We had a good rest after a long day traveling.

The following day we hired bicycles and did a circuit of the island. We took the long way around and ended up biking 32 km’s, once again on one speed bikes and in the heat of the day. It’s safe to say the ride helped our tans a lot.

The lack of young people (or the abundance of oldies?) meant that later that day we headed to a ‘backpacker’ island – Don Det.

Don Det is a great place. The lifestyle is amazingly relaxed, there are things to visit and the prices are the cheapest we have seen.

We went across the island and checked out the waterfalls. They weren’t as beautiful as the ones we’d seen in Luang Prabang but they had alot more volume to them and were far more menacing.



Because we have a streak of daring in us (and because we've had lots of jabs) we decided to roll the dice against dysentery, cholera and typhoid and go swimming in South East Asia's sewer, the Mekong.


Our bungalow was perched right on the edge of the Mekong and came complete with hammocks which made it the perfect place to laze around and watch the sunset.


Don Det doesn’t have any cash points or money exchanges so we were forced off of the island when we ran out of cash. We paid a deposit for a bus to Siem Reap in Cambodia and left the following day.

Random Fact:
-Don Det doesn't have an electricity connection from the mainland. When it gets dark the locals fire up the generators until about 11pm.

Highlights:
- The local delicacy which is steam cooked, minced fish (bones and all), wrapped in coconut leaves. Very salty.
- Dirt cheap accommodation - $4 NZ for a riverside bungalow with sunset views.
- Beating the locals at table tennis - they had nothing to combat the forearm smash, with several balls striking the opposition in the head - awesome.

Lessons Learned:
- Avoid paying for transport up front. We would have avoided the border debacle if we hadn’t of paid all the money at the start of the ride.
- Laolao (rice whiskey) is supposed to be smoother in Si Phan Don. This isn’t the case and it’s as rough as anywhere else in Laos.
- Take plenty of cash because money isn’t available on the islands. We left because of a lack of funds, but the four nights we had on the island were enough.
- Shower whilst it's light outside and you can see whats going on.