King Khong

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Hi Everyone :-) Hope everything is good back at home? And no more nail bombs in Exeter?? How weird!

Sorry we havn't blogged for a while - we are in Cambodia already but will have to backdate due to lack of internet action lately! (Also thats why you havn't had any emails guys, sorry). We will do the Cambodia blog soon as well now we are back in some kind of civilisation.

Anyway... from Pakse in Central Laos we headed south to Champasak to get a taster for things to come at Angkor. Our journey there was a real experience - we were loaded into a full sawangtaew (truck with two benches either side and one squashed in the middle!). It was full of locals, a girl called Naomi from New Orleans, various things like about 50+ pineapples, several hundred banannas, a qaurter of a ton of rambutan, a satellite dish, cabbages, other veggies and two cockerals plus other things-we lost count!! :-) The locals found us 'falangs' quite amusing for some reason, can't think why (i'm blaming it on Dean's current afro, overgrown hairstyle ha ha not that I can say much!). It was a generally confusing journey, we stopped and started constantly until we arrived on the banks of the Mekong after about two hours. To cross the Mekong we had to wait for a 'ferry' (see pics!!) to cart us and other waiting vehicles across to Champasak on the other side. The ferry was a good old mish mash of scrap metal, old wooden planks and two telegraph poles! We stood on the side ready to jump into the Mekong in the very likely chance we would all sink. Getting off the ferry was also a bit interesting - they don't have ramps over here so they needed to drive off at top speed to get up the hill at the other side (with Dean hanging on the back the whole way up - they did try to warn him though, but in Lao!) That trip was pretty fun.

When we actually got to Champasak we were bundled off at the side of a dirt track (their main road) and right in front of our eyes was the Vong Pasaud Guesthouse which we intended to stay at. The friendly guy owner (who turned out to be a complete crunchy nutter - in a good way) greeted us and offered us a bargain room complete with a cheap restaurant with an excellent Mekong view and hammocks. Most of our time was spent reading and taking in the view of the amazing storms that came up the Mekong (see pic and video), and laughing at the owners comical dogs (they say dogs are like their owners!). On the following day we got up bright and early to get a head start to see the impressive Wat Phu Champasak, Naomi, the American girl also came with us. The three different levels of the temple stretched right up the hill which meant you could see an amazing view from the shrine at the top. We had the place to ourselves most of the time apart from a convoy of Thai tourists who ran in and out within ten minutes, they were pretty amusing to watch. Really looking forward to seeing Angkor now!

That evening two American guys, Jake and Brian, sat down at our table while we were having dinner. They were pretty funny as they had just been drinking Lao Lao (rice whiskey) with some locals so they were a complete mess repeating their stories over and over - needless to say we ended up getting a few Beer Lao too, Naomi also joined us and we found about their time in Asia. The next day we were all heading in the same direction and so shared a truck back to the main road which included another amusing ride on the 'ferry'. From there we picked up another sawangtaew to Si Phan Don. The three hour or so ride was another experience. It's quite weird as it seems most Asian people really like pale skin and would never dream of sunbathing as some of them even bleach their skin to make themsleves lighter. Anyway as soon as we got onboard a local woman grabbed my hands and examined them for a good ten minutes, then all the other women looked - really weird. The women here are so lovely and friendly, personal space doesn't seem to really exist so they grab you, hold your hand and smile at you - for some reason they seem to be quite fascinated by us. Soon after this some kids squeezed in with their mom. The kids here are also really great, they always smile and want to know where you are from. A couple of them were sat in the middle opposite me and we pulled faces, played games and I tried to teach them to whistle. It was quite sad when they got off, we made a couple of little friends after three hours on the bumpy road which included a downpour. Luckily one side, the side I was sat on, stayed water free but Dean's side got soaked. When it does rain out here it's like people are chucking buckets of water at you - rain coats or anything else would be pretty useless.

We got off at the Don Khong stop off, said our goodbyes and got on another boat to go over to the island. We found another really good hotel, Done Khong Guesthouse, overlooking the Mekong. On the following day we got up early to cycle around the island. It was a lovely morning, we managed to miss the showers and as we went through the villages the kids ran out shouting sabadee at the top of their voices and wanted to high five us as we cycled by. The island was really pretty, there were quite a few little villages on the way around. We saw buffalo wading in the mud and water, trying to stay out of the blazing sun and there was endless paddy fields surrounding us. The sun out here seems to get stronger by the day and we managed to get burnt again, not good. We are doing everything we can to avoid getting a tan or getting burnt but it's really hard when you're doing activities.

The next day we got an early morning boat to the smaller island of Don Khon. The boat was meant to leave at nine but our guy came and told us it was leaving an hour earlier so we rushed around and packed our things still half asleep. When we rushed to the boat there was a right mix of tourists which seem to have appeared from nowhere. On the way we needed to stop at the 'bank' on the river edge, we hadn't been near one for ages and we heard there was one in the middle of nowhere which was a bit strange. When we got down the dirt track there was a building with a desk in it and a few men hanging around (and some chickens making mess on the floor - you don't see that in Natwest!). Luckily we managed to sort out all our dollars for Cambodia, even though it did take ages, which was a bit of a relief.

Don Khon was a really pretty little island. While we were looking around for a place to stay, a couple of Brits called Lea and Aled recommended a little guesthouse called Pension Dauphine tucked away off the little dirt track we were on. The lady running the mini guesthouse, Madame Saisamome, was so lovely and a proper character. Bargain at 2.50 a night! We soon found out she had all her little fingers and two thumbs in every pie going. Her French was better then her English so Dean got to pratice his lingo skills with her which was really good.

That afternoon we headed out through a little village which turned to forest to reach Li Phi Falls which turned out to be pretty impressive as we didn't expect much. The falls were huge with the Mekong crashing over huge areas of rock, not very high but extremley wide and powerfull.

On our first night on the island we eventually found a restaurant with food in stock on our third attempt, to get some dinner! It was a little walk from where we were staying but this only became a problem when there was a huge downpour and storm (a really huge storm). We ended up having to pluck up the courage to run back down the dirt track through puddles, cow/buffalo muck and I'm not sure what else due to the darkness while the lightening and thunder went off into the distance. One moment it was pitch black and the next you could see everything lit up by the lightning. The power cuts didn't become much of a problem because the islands electric is only on for three hours in the evening anyway.

The following day we had a day trip with Madame Saisamome, Lea and Aled to Khon Phapheng Falls which was followed by a boat ride to hopefully see the rare Irrawaddy dolphins. The day started with us clambering into a longtail boat which headed over to the mainland. Where we had to get off was bustling with market people all wading through rubbish and water/sewage running down the street to the river. This was the first real grubby bit of Laos we have seen so far - yuck! From there we got a truck to the waterfalls which again turned out to be really really impressive. The rain the day before had bought the river level right up and the main falls were really powerful (see pic). We managed to clamber down to the foot of the falls to get more of an idea of the sheer volume of water passing over the rocks - you wouldn't want to take a dip in there!! Dean reckoned you would need a kayak the size of a ferry to make it down in one piece.

From the falls it was back on the truck to another boat to take us upstream to a deep pool in the Mekong where Irrawaddy dolphins can be spotted. At first we all had to cram onto a tiny island/rock (see pic). After about half an hour with not much joy we decided to go over to the Cambodian side to get a closer look at the splashes we could see. Half way across the river our driver cut the engine and we were lucky enough to watch them splash around. There were loads of them in groups chasing fish that were trying to take refuge near our boat - we were so lucky to see them up close as it is apparently not that common to see so many. As we had entered Cambodian waters our driver told us we would need to land on the Cambodian side to pay a one dollar 'fee' to the 'policemen'. The 'policemen' were stationed at a hut on the bank which overlooked the dolphin spot, a nice little side earner :-) They were pretty friendly, though it didn't reassure us that much as we were effectivly illegal immigrants in Cambodia for 20min! We tried to get a few pics but it was one of those times when you really had to be there to see anything - they swim pretty darn quick.

When we got back we went out for lunch and dinner with Lea and Aled, which led into the evening and predictably too many Beer Lao (well too many for Dean :-) The big bottles are deceiving!! Dean also found out that Aled was not only another fellow taff but he was also born in Carmarthen. Small world! It was a very very good last day/evening in Laos and we were really sad to leave. This was also made a little worse as we had to get up at 5am, Dean had a hangover, to meet the bus back on the mainland. This also meant another dodgy boat ride with all of our luaggage and we had to scramble up through the rubbish/water etc which turned out to be a bit tricky with the extra weight.

The Laos/Cambodia border at Dom Kralor was predictably amusing. For a start it was in the middle of nowhere and the immigration points were two little sheds 100m apart with herds of goats in no mans land. To cut a long story short we ended up paying a couple of 'processing' fees to officials both to get out of Laos and to get into Cambodia, still it makes life simpler! Another two hour sweaty bus journey (the AC was broken and no windows!) and we were in Stung Treng. Which is where we shall leave it for now!

Will update you soon on our Cambodian adventure, we have been here a week now and it's crazy. We should be able to get online a bit more from now on so let us know any news from home?

Miss you all loads and loads,
Take care!

All our love, Sar and Dean xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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