From 4000 Islands to tubing in Van Vieng

---

Don Det

Now for this part of the blog i can pretty much summarize what we did in a short paragraph;
We chilled, chilled some more and drunk some whiskey which was not much more expensive than water at a pound a bottle and then played some cards and chilled and chatted some more.
Don Det is an amazing place which has the ability to draw in travelers who only plan to make a short stop and end up staying a week. Everyone one the island is so laid back that they are in fact most of the time horizontal with only short spates of upright as a consequence of venturing out for samosas, more booze or perhaps to vary restaurants.
We did at one point rent bikes and cycle down to a waterfall at the other end of the island where we sat in a shallow bay occasionally getting our feet nibbled at by fish (free this time but rather a shock when one appeared). Another day we rented tubes ( actually just the inflated inner tubes of tractor tires) and floated around the rivers which was amazing ! We celebrated full moon when unfortunately some guy was stupid enough to go swimming out a long way and we all got really worried ( i suppose all's well that ends well), the next day the dutch threw a party to celebrate the queens birthday and that is about all there is to tell about Don Det a beautiful place with lovely people. Two of whom ( Gaz and Liz) joined us on the next stage of our journey.

Moving on up

So dragging ourselves away from the lovely Don Det it was time to move on (6 days later) we decided to go to Tha Kheak what with Vientiane being a really long way away and it having a few nice caves which we went to see the second day before speedily moving on!
Vientiene was a city where you could really see the French influence and although we didn't do a huge amount here it was lovely just milling about the city for a couple of days.

Vang Vieng

This place is comparable to Na Trang in Vietnam and Shinookville in Cambodia, in fact we did bump into a few people who had simply moved from one straight to the other, saying that Vang Vieng was much more fun it's like a childs dream place with a tubing river scattered with various rope swings and zip lines owned by the bars where you buy a drink and get as many goes as you want. I chickened out cause the injuries where mental. It's dry season so the rivers low and as a result people have to be very careful where they land, and we all know that drunk people and personal safety do not always combine well. As a result i saw numerous scratches and bruises, what may have been broken ribs and heard of far worse. Ignoring that it was brilliant there where free shots all the way down. We played tug of war ( and beat the boys 2 out of 3 times) and mud volleyball at mud bar and generally had a laugh.
We bumped into Allison and Anni from Phnom Phen which was brilliant as they'd been there 10 days and knew everyone. We danced till dawn did numerous whiskey buckets and a mushroom one which had me in fits of giggles and a couple of the girls tripping out, and ate the best baguettes ever!!
Unfortunately at this point we said goodbye to Gas and Liz an amazingly funny couple we'd been traveling with since Don Det (but not without a good send off) although getting up the next day at 10.30 to say goodbye was painful to say the least.
After a couple more days of excess and fun it was time to move on splitting from Anni and Alison but planning to see them in Thailand's full moon party and heading up to Luang Probang.

Luang Probang

Stunning scenery and a nice night market characterized Luang Probang, we were unfortunately a little short of time due to having stayed in Vang Vieng a little longer than expected but got in a visit to a nice temple on the top of a large hill and some shopping in the night market before having to leave Zeena behind and head of to Huay Xai for the start of our gibbon experience.

Gibbon Experience

I was understandably a little nervous about starting the Gibbon experience, i mean its been a while since I've done any real exercise out here, I'd say about Vietnam, and in addition to that I'm petrified of spiders so what on earth was i doing heading into a jungle?!
Saying that I had a brilliant time, yes it was hard work trekking at times and yes there were huge spiders living in the tree house with us but i dealt with it and am happy to say that i was not the least fit on the trek. The views from the tree house were incredible and the zip lines were so much fun it was challenging but enjoyable and definitely a highlight of Laos.
The second morning we went on a trek of path into part of the jungle trying to spot the gibbons, unfortunately although we heard them we didn't get to see them in fact the only real animals we saw that morning were the leaches!
That afternoon we headed out on a 3-4 hour trek to visit all of the tree houses and got the oppertunity to do the biggest zip lines of about 300 meters long and up to 150 meters high dangling in the middle looking down on the valleys from that height really gave the most incredible views. When we arrived back everyone was exhausted but after lunch and a quick shower me an Pamilla a girl from Holland decided to venture back out to treehouse two and have another go on some of the zip lines. We got to the bottom of treehouse two and were invited up to have a cup of tea.
However we soon lost the path and spent 20 minutes rambling through the jungle trying to find a mythical zipline, eventually we headed back and realized we'd missed an obvious turning fairly early on!
The second night we had a storm which was so scary lightening everywhere and there we are in a very large tree in the emergent layer of the rainforest. We got ready in case we had to be evacuated with harnesses and all and sat in bed huddled into one corner because it was drenched, as scary and exciting as the storm may have been it turned out it was a relatively small one and i heard stories of other previous groups in the less sturdy treehouses clinging to the trunk because the tree was swaying so much.
The next morning all a little shattered we had one last go at the triangle a little trio of zip lines we had nearby our treehouse, we made up and took part in the zip line Olympics with points for take off landing, style grace and characters. Hilarious! Unfortunately i didn't win and all too soon it was over with us slipping and sliding down the now wet paths back to a little village where we caught a lift back to Huey Xai. Two and a half hours later we were back at the border down with numb bums gutted it was over!
Next onto Thailand currently in Political strife with 38 dead, i do know what I'm entering and plan to completely avoid bangkok, Reports from other travelers seem to suggest most of the other areas we want to go are fine ....

---

Photos

Sunsets at don det
Obviously we chose the sunset side of the island cause i had no intention of getting up for sunrise everyday and isn't it stunning?!

Visiting the buddhist caves
little boat ride where i had to bail out the water with a plate!

Fire Limbo in Vang Vieng
Dangerous when drunk :)

Bus journey
Luang Probang to Huay xia was soo windy i felt sick but the vies were stunning

The waterfall at don det
One of the more active days on the island

More of the sunset
Who wouldn't get a little snap happy

More of the caves
All decorated for the new year

Vang vieng
Party time