Si Phan Don (4000 islands)

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After a very pleasant sleeper bus ride (we slept the entire 10 hour trip). We arrived in Pakse, swapped busses, drive 2 more hours and hopped off at the dock to catch the little long tail boat to take us across to the main island, Don Det.
4000 islands isnt just a name, there are literally 4000 islands in this portion of the Mekong river. And its easy to forget that you are on a river sometimes as it is so massive in places. The tiny village on Don Det that we are staying in is a sleepy place with no night life other than the few bar/restaurants that people pack into at night. Our first night in we found a bungalo for 70,000 kip a night, which seemed a little much but again we were so weary from the trip in we settled on the first one we found. Our neighbors here were a cool Polish couple that were happy to sit and chat.
Later we went and walked around the island, got a few drinks at a couple places then ended up at Adam's Rogue bar, a hilarious place that has a menu for pirated music, tv and movies. He even offers pre-loaded hard drives and usb drives for you. Since Laos is a communist country, it seems this sort of thing is ok. The other highlight to Rogue bar were the 'Space Cookies' (pot brownies) which we happily sampled. Shortly after our brownie arrived another young couple sat at the table in front of us and ordered one. They also grabbed a couple board games off the shelf and asked us to join them. As it turns out, Maya and Tom were another couple from Poland. They had been abroad a year, teaching in China for 6 months before moving on to Vietnam, Cambodia and finally Laos. We played a couple games of Jenga with them (we won) and then five games of Connect Four. I guess I didnt know this, but it turns out Poland is the world leader in Connect Four as Maya and Tom schooled us hard, defeting us in every game.
We're halfway through our short stay in 4000 islands and are thinking of renting bikes today to ride to the adjacent island which is connected by an old rail bridge. Apparently there are some nice waterfalls there and a chance to see some of the local fresh water dolpins that live in the river.

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