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Published: August 4th 2008
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Don Det Island
Dury chillin' in our hammock! Hiya everyone,
(Rob, Bis and Danielle - Don't read this blog entry cos I sent you all letters last week telling you about this bit!)
I know it's been forever since I wrote on here but I'm going to try to catch you all up with what I've been upto. The last few weeks have been the best yet and I'll write a few entries now for each place.
So, from Luang Prabang Dury and I caught the bus to Vientiane which is the capital of Laos. The city doesn't have too much to it - it's pretty lazy and even in the centre it's not very busy. The tuk-tuk drivers all sleep in their hammocks in the middle of the day and don't really bother you too much. We stayed in a crummy place the first night but we got into Vientiane really late so didn't have much choice. We stayed there one night and then found a nicer place in the morning. We stayed in Vientiane for 5 nights in total. We visited the That Luang which is the main temple and saw the 'Arc de Triomphe' which they built as an imitation! But my favourite
Don Det Island
Sunset from our bungalow thing we did in Vientiane (and I am a very bad traveller for admitting this) was bowling! Didn't quite know what to expect when we read that there was a bowling alley. I had visions of skittles in some guys back yard, but it was a proper bowling place just like at home, which for a few hours was a nice change get-away from S.E.A.
So from Vientiane we got a sleeper bus down to the South of Laos, to a town called Pakse. This bus was absolute comedy! It was a proper sleeper bus with bunk-beds inside! You had to share a bunk though so it was a bit cosy. Dury and I got a top bunk to share. I slept like a baby, Dury didn't sleep at all!
Anyway, there's not really a lot to Pakse as a place to stay so we got a bus the next morning to Si Phan Don (4000 Islands). These are a group of islands where the Mekong River spreads out right at the South of Laos, nearly in Cambodia. The bus took us to Nakasong and then we got a long-tail boat to Don Det which is a popular
Don Det Island
During writing in his journal at our bungalow restaurant island to stay on. Just crossing the Mekong to the island on that little boat was cool! The boat drops you off on the sunrise side which is the main street, well, dirt track with some little shops and bars on. We crossed over to the sunset side and got a small bungalow to stay in. Our bungalow was just a small bamboo hut on stilts with enough room for a double bed, a mosquito net and our bags. We did have our own balcony with a hammock though which was cool! The island only gets electricity from 6pm to 10pm each night. The main priority of Don Det is pretty much just to chill out (kind of like the rest of Laos) so we didn't do a whole lot. A couple of days, we rented bicycles and rode around the island on the little dirt tracks. Don Det is connected to a bridge to a bigger island called Don Khon and from there you can get a trip to see the Irrawaddy dolphins. They're pretty rare, apparently the only fresh water dolphins in the world. We found some guy who would take us on his long-tail boat for a
couple of dollars so we hopped on and he took both of us to a viewing point. The dolphins were a bit disappointing - just humps on the horizon! Don't know what else I was expecting but it was pretty dull anyway. On the second day with bikes we rode to find some waterfalls, but stopped off at a small restaurant and got talking to a local guy (Lao people are SO friendly) and we ended up joining them for dinner and drinking all afternoon with them! Pretty cool. We learnt cheers in Lao and then we were well away - 'Nyok Nyok'!!
Being on Don Det Island was definitely the best time in Laos so far. It was so beautiful and relaxed. Everyone was friendly and chilled out. Because it's still in the river so there aren't any beaches as such so it's not swamped with sunbathers or anything. It's pretty remote and I felt like I could stay there forever! Unfortunately, the money soon ran out and, as you can imagine, there aren't any ATMs on the island so we had to leave back for Pakse after about 5 nights!
So that is our experience of
Don Det Island
Sunrise Boulevard on Don Det! Don Det Island.
Next entry - Pakse and the Bolaven Plateau
xxxxx
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