On the Mekong, Laos

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Don Det of the 4,000 islands in Laos...........

3rd March - flew into Pakse, Laos from Cambodia. We seem to have made a mistake in coming from Cambodia to Laos as you cannot get a visa on the border unless you fly, which will cost you $100. So anyway, we had to fly and then spent a night in Pakse in Laos where we got our 30 day visa. Pakse is a pleasant place, not much to do but we managed to get a pizza and had a beer or 3 at the local bus station bar which seemed to be full of the Laos young people as opposed to the farang places up the road.

Tues 4th, heading to an area called 4,000 islands, its a cluster of islands on the Mekong river, and we're headed for Don Det. We got a bus, then another chicken bus as we called it, a songthaew stuffed full of locals, a few farang on their way to Don Det, most of their year's shopping and us. We were absolutely filled to the rafters with people and stuff, the boys travelling on the roof with the bags too! Really really really hot! it was a 3 and a half hour ride in the chicken bus, with it stopping frequently for us to be bombarded with sellers stuffing cooked chicken and turnip type things and whatnot into your face and all clamouring and shouting at once. Seen it all before so its not really too out of the ordinary. In fact, would be a bit boring without it really! I kind of enjoy it, breaks up the journey.

We get to the river, and get a wee boat over to the island, we met 3 lads from surrey too off of the chicken bus, one of whom kindly carried my smaller pack for me as he could see that my spine was about to snap with my huge pack on it already.

anyhoo, we arrived on the small beach of Don Det and had to walk along the sunrise side of the island (you turn left for sunset side - not so many bungalows, and right for sunrise and there are lots of bungalows). Most of the places were full so we had to walk for bloody ages til we found something available. They were like in two's with a shared balcony, so me and sheena had one each (double bed to yourself - luxory) and the 3 lads had the next door one. Well, the bungalows here are VERY basic, some wooden and some just made of bamboo and all with great holes and gaps where the scary huge size insects crawl in to get you in the night. The whole lot are mainly quite shabby with shared toilet blocks and shower but very very basic so you do need to be able to rough it a bit. There are mozzie nets which are very necessary as the room was full of cobwebs, spiders, cockroaches etc etc. Most of the bungalows are along the riverside but ours were just over the dirt track but only 15,000 kip per night which is about 75p a night, or some such. Very cheap! Mind you ,there is no electricity so you need candles and a torch!

First night out, we went for food and then played some pool in a bar near the beach with the lads, and played with some other people too and did the usual of drinking Beer Lao and playing pool and generally doing the normal stuff you do in bars. Hello, what's yer name and where do you come from?

It's a very small place and not too many places to go, they all close between 10 and 11pm so then people seem to head off toward the beach for a gathering round a fire. Sheena wasn't feeling too great so she went back to the bungalow and i headed down to the beach with some others. The first night was brilliant, we sat on the beach round a fire til god knows, about 3 or 4 maybe? not even sure, there were guitars and we sang (me badly as usual, trying to hide the lyrics i get wrong by just singing louder). Thought I'd have a sneaky pee on the beach in the dark just out of sight, but i fell over a guitar case drawing attention to myself already, then when i was squatting some bright arse went and took a photo and backlit me against everyone on the beach with the flash. god - how embarassing and attractive. how very DARE they. i felt quite disturbed that some git on the island had a picture of my full moon on the beach and i didnt know who it was! then i fell over the guitar case again, i just cant keep a low profile. anyway, eventually i wandered off with daley to find my bungalow. it was pitch black as apart from generators - there isnt any mains electric and that goes off at 11 or whatever so its pitch black on the dirt track to find your way back and i hadnt a decent torch. daley helped me to try and find my place but we spent ages and ages walking up and down and back and forwards and i couldnt for the life of me find it! eventually, i had to give in and kip down at daley and kev's bungalow. kev had a shock when he woke up and there i was sleeping with them in the bed! i think he thought it was a nightmare ha ha. anyway, i managed to wobble off home with a big hangover and found my way to the bungalow, got in at 11am and sheena was just opening her door!

so - was knackered and sheena still not feeling too great (Weds) and so found hammocks in the Reggae bar and lay down. (i managed to snap the rope holding all the hammocks and went down on my back looking a right idiot. seem to be very clumsy lately). we snoozed and dribbled and read overlooking the Mekong all day and then had dinner and went to the beach again in the evening. However, the police arrived around midnight-ish and hoofed everyone off the beach and told us to go back to our bungalows. apparently a fair group of people found a spot in a field and had a fire and carried on partying til 5am, but me and sheena missed out on that and went home to our spider infested bungalows. We also have chickens and dogs and lord knows whatever else scratching around our places all night. i spend all night waking periodically and shining my torch over on the huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge spider at the bottom of my bed to see if it has moved and whether it has eaten through the net to come and lay eggs in my ear while i sleep and drape it's horrid legs all over my face. shudder.

Thurs, 6th.

We hired a couple of bicycles and went for a cycle over the bridge and onto the next island (don kon), we saw a waterfall (same old same old) and then found the other beach over there. Walked round the corner and there was Oggie!!! tee hee, was lovely to see Oggie again, (our poi wielding matey from kho phangan), we also met Jon and Nick and we all chatted a bit on the beach and then met up later for drinks and went to the Indian restaurant. (altho not Oggie in the evening), we had a good night and sat on the beach again til the cops hoofed us off again.

7th - Sheena's birthday - 38 the old baggage

Sheen's burp day today - we walked to a restaurant called the Mekong Dream on the river and lazed on the hammocks underneath it. Jon joined us and the two of us kicked a ball around a bit, then Oggie and Nick turned up and we juggled and messed about and had coffee and stuff. Then we walked down to King Kong restaurant and played ping pong and read in hammocks. Very nice chilled day, in the evening we ate at the restaurant at our place (paradise bungalows) and Oggie, nick and jon joined us. I 'borrowed' a bicycle and rode off into the darkness, torch in my gob, to find supplies of Lion King Laos whiskey and coke. I came back with a large bottle and some coke for a bit of a birthday toast. Following the consumption of this we walked off down to the beach and joined the little group on there. After the first night, with the police hanging about it all sort of lost a bit of momentum and we didnt stay for too long, an hour or so, sheena left first, then i left a little later. the night sort of petered out but was very enjoyable nevertheless and we were all victims of the Lion King!

8th - hired bikes again and cycled round the island, we decided to leave the next day and continue to Vientiane further north. The usual shenanigans in the evening, we found jon and nick and played some pool with various others, beach for a while and wobble home.

9th March - 11am boat across the river, mini bus (after a debacle of some laos' trying to start a dead minibus along the beach, first pushing it, then repeatedly towing it with our minibus! it did eventually start and chuffed out much black smoke, it was a bit of a circus!) over to the bus station at Pakse to get a connecting overnight bus to Vientienne. As it was an overnight journey and about 12 hours long, we booked the VIP bus and paid a bit extra for a decent bus. PAH or so we thought! another chicken bus debacle ensued. it was packed to the rafters with plastic stools along the aisle to pack even more locals on and a motorbike on the roof amongst other things! it was so bloody hot i could scarce breathe. well, it started, stopped, started, stopped, tortured us with awful thai style TV and kareoke videos for hours, and then kept turning the lights on and off all night. Some weird woman in the aisle kept falling asleep on me and squashing me, but the bloke on my left was busy blowing his nose into his very jacket which made me want to vomit and i got no sleep at all. Well, yet another crazy bus experience ha ha. We got to Vientiane about 5am, and then had to get another blummin songthaw into the town centre. We found that all the guest houses were full so we left our big bags at one and went off to have breaky and do internet for a couple of hours to see if people were checking out of places later. This we did and eventually got a decent room at about midday. I am not kidding you - i stank like a chicken crap myself. The dust of don det was still caked all over me, the previous day's and night's sweat and my hat hair was actually trying to escape from my head. It was a treat to get a hot shower - wow - you dont get many of those, and nice clean beds and sheets and towels. We spoke to a guy in reception who had woke up last night at another place and had bed bugs crawling all over him! we have heard a few stories like this - it seems to be a bed bug convention over here, but we are lucky with this place - the mattresses and pillows look brand new and its all clean. And only 2 quid a night, expensive after don det but it seems like a luxory hotel in comparison.

this afternoon, after a shower, leg shave and a nap we went for a walk. got lost and sweaty all over again and had to procure a tuk tuk to bring us back. durr. we're now off for some grub and a large one (beer laos that is).

love to you all me hearties, thanks for the emails. jap and pen - get on with yer work, skiving behind tone's back reading me shite ha ha!!! move over, i'll need a job soon - get another computer arf arf im coming to cornwall for the final blog!!!!

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Photos

yeah, another hammock day
this is the life eh

on the boat
anyone wanna take a photo

The Mekong
most of the riverside bungalows have a view like this

Our luxory shared shower
i became very fond of this shower

i must lose some weight
i seem to have collapsed all the hammocks.

View from restaurant
the lovely Mekong