Blogs from Don Det, South, Laos, Asia - page 4

Vi ankom til Don Det uden nogen form for forventning. Vi havde fået det anbefalet forskellige steder fra, men det var også det. Don Det er en ud af mange øer, som ligger i det område i Mekong-floden. Det er en af mest populære med Bungalows som den primære form for beværtning. Vi ankom til Naksong fra Pakse og fik os selv om bord på en båd som skulle sejle den lille tur på 10 min. ud til Don Det.Selve øen er bygget op af bungalows og restauranter langs yderkanten af øen som nok er halvanden til to km. lang og halvt så bred. Bungalowsne er yderst primitive, mange af dem uden vand og elektricitet i det omfang der er to-tre pærer og en stikkontakt. Den bungalow vi startede med at bo i havde dog vand, ... read more

First, I would like to apologise for the rather dour and curt previous entry. In my defense I was sober. Getting from Jinghong to the Laos border by bus was simplicity itself. We were greeted at Mohan on the Chinese side with an official-looking, modern, immigration station. A few minutes later at Boten in Laos we reached theirs: a rather rickety wooden shack. Formalities completed and we were just about to remount the impatient horn-tooting bus when I noticed a money-changers: we had no Laos kip, would arrive late at our destination and didn’t know if Yuan would be readily exchangeable away from the border. Ali placated the driver whilst I ran over. The rate was good so I swapped the remaining Yuan and hurried back feeling rather pleased with myself. Then as the bus pulled ... read more

Sine leaving Vientiane the bus has travelled through the south of Laos and visited some remote plaes where there are few tourists so I have been glad for our own bus. OUr first stop was Tad Leuk, where we camed right beside the waterfall and were joined my 2 travellers who were getting around in a converted Austrian military vehicle. It was a different sort of motor home for travelling. From there we went to Kong Lor & the 7km aves, which were mighty impressive & then we spent New Years Eve at a homestay in monkey village. We slept on someone's floor on mattresses & woke up in the morning to feed bananas to the monkeys. Our onward journey was long but we eventually reached Tad Lo & the waterfall after dark so we only ... read more

Well after the mentalness of Vamg Vieng it was ofiicially time for some down time. After a gruelling 6 hour journey to Vientienne, the capital of laos, in the morning there followed a 15 hour sleeper bus to the southern town of Pakse, a 2 hour minibus and then a boat across to the island of Don Det in the 4000 islands. 3 days was mostly spent sleeping in, lying in a hammocks with a book and a beer and riding a retro purple girls bike around the islands! The vibe on these islands is about as laid back as it's possible to get. Chritmas Eve was taken up by whiskey buckets and fire dancers accompanied by some banging house music while Chritmas day night consisted of a hog roast and some interesting brownies at a ... read more

We Spent three nights on Don Det the more backpackery of the two main islands by the largest falls in Asia, called Khong Phopheng Falls. Here we were able to spot the very rare Irrawaddy dolphin on one of the fast boats which race up and down the river, cycle the quite paths which criss cross the adjoining islands and chill out at the local reggae bar after enjoying the sunset on a deserted island.... read more

Sabai-deeeeeeee from Laos! Sabai-dee (hello) was the first Lao word that we learned upon arriving in this so-laid-back-that-horizontal-doesn't-do-it-justice country. And it's also the word that we've used (and heard) thousands of times since, over the past two weeks that we've spent here. There's something about the word, other than the natural smile that you produce when both saying and hearing it, that seems to sum up the atmosphere in little landlocked Laos. The smile begins with the first 's' sound but then after a little nod of the head with the 'bai' the teeth come shining through the 'dee' ending; and it´s here where the word comes alive. If you eeeeee-longate that 'deeeeeee' with as many e's as you like you're well on your way to smiling like a super laid back local, or like a ... read more

Feeling much better today. Still not 100% and I wont be eating any more tomato omelets anytime soon. I'm sticking to fried food for the time being. Alarm goes off at 07:00, but I've been awake awhile already. Grab a shower and head down to the port. It's half seven and there's only a handful of travellers waiting, I grab some biscuits and sit with Oliver. By eight there's enough travellers to fill four boats. Everyone else is carrying their backpack, I'm the only one on an ATM run. The two Dutch guys turn up just as people are starting to board. I get on the same boat as them. On the mainland there's no indication where we should go, one guy walks off like he knows where he's going so we follow. He leads us ... read more