4000 Islands & into Cambodia

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Chris's Section

The overnight bus from Vientiane to Pakse was pretty good. Even though the beds were about 2 inches too short, I still managed to get quite a bit of sleep and the 11 hour journey went quickly. Pakse was a little forgettable, which was fine as it was just a stop-off to break up the trip down to the South.

We set off the next day for Si Phan Don, or as it's also known, the 4000 islands. The area is an archipelago of sandbars and rocky islands covered in jungle and/or rice fields. We decided to head to Don Det, which is the most developed of the islands. I say developed, they only got electricity in March! We found a nice place for 40,000 kip a night (about £3.30). Much of the accommodation on the island is dirt cheap. After a bite to eat we set of to explore the island. Well, we went for a stroll, got lost, and ended up walking around the whole island (about 5-6 kilometres) in serious heat with no water. Still, the island is beautiful (outside of the backpacker area) and I really enjoyed the trek. Not so sure about Lou!

The next day we hired bikes and cycled across the bridge to the next island, Don Khon. We went to see the impressive Tat Somphamit waterfalls. The bike ride is very bumpy, a bit rocky in places, and generally hard on your arse. But, we really enjoyed the day.

I have to comment on the food in Don Det - it's bloody awful. We had some of our trip's worst meals here. The Lao/Thai food wasn't that great, and the western food was (sometimes) close to inedible (think slimy dog food meatballs) - serves us right for ordering western!

We had planned to stay in Don Det 5 days. We ended up staying 3. It's a very chilled-out and generally beautiful place, but there wasn't enough there to keep us occupied. On reflection, and after talking to other travellers, we should have stayed on Don Khon. It's less developed and seems to have a little bit more class.

So off we headed to the Laos-Cambodian border. The border crossing itself was fairly uneventful. We got back on our bus and headed to our chosen destination, Stung Treng. When the bus stopped in the town we instantly decided to stay on the bus and go onto Kratie (Stung Treng is a dump!). We're now in Kratie and we've struck gold with our guest house. It's called the Balcony Guest House and is fabulous. It overlooks a tree-lined riverside street and has nice clean rooms and a great restaurant on the veranda. We had some wonderful Khmer food last night. We may stay for a few days.

After Kratie we're off to Phnom Penh, but we're thinking of diverting south to get some long overdue beach-time in Sihanoukville.



Louise's Section

So finally after about 4 days, yesterday I ate two decent meals in a row, I'm so happy.

As Chris said the trip to Pakse was much better than we expected but I was glad we didn't stay more than one night there as there is nothing to do at all and our air con unit was stuck on -20!!.

So onto Don Det... all I can say is apart from the scenery I hated it. Think we defo picked the wrong island to stay on as the food, portions and service appeared much better on Don Khon. Oh well. Some people really liked Don Det though so don't be put off by my blog. Our hostel was great (Souskan Hotel, just right of the boat landing).

The main problem for me on the island (which would have killed my sister with a heart attack) was that once it got dark, any fluorescent light had at least 10,000 smallish moths flying into them which meant dive bombing those poor sods on tables in the way of their flight path. This is not good when you are trying to eat and they land on your food!! So after lunches batting off flies like a ninja, then tea time doing the same with moths in my beer or food I had worn myself out on the 2nd night and got fed up.

Tip for other travellers re' food on Don Det, if you crave something Western for food, fight the craving off and stick to the Lao food, their attempt at Western (with the exception of Baguettes) is very poor and lead to some tummy trouble.

On a good note though, the old railway line path to the other island is a lovely walk but do take water as there is a long gap between places selling it and the heat was immense. The wildlife and scenery are great and the locals are much more friendly than those up running the bars in the main tourist area.

So, now we're in Kratie, which is small but very pretty. Hoping to get up mega early and go over to an island in the Mekong tomorrow which is supposed to e one of the most beautiful places in Cambodia.

Oh and I finally saw an elephant when we went past it on the bus, it was a village one being used to carry stuff so was happy it didn't have a fat westerner on it and being forced into the tourism trade like most of them here. And I saw a monkey on the island, albeit tied up as a pet but defo wasn't expecting that to fall out the tree as we got near!!

Off to the capital on Sunday in time for the next England match, then Snoopdoggydog ville (I can't say it right) for some beach time.

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Photos

4000 islands
View from our guest house as a storm rolls in

4000 islands
Bridge connecting Don Det with Don Khon

4000 islands
Tat Somphamit waterfalls