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Published: July 20th 2008
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i arrived at the jetty on the mainland after catchin a mini van from Vientienne and changing at Pakse, this change was where the problem started. it worked out that when we changed minivans my bag was loaded first but i was last to get on and ended up not havin a seat, instead of unloading 10 other bags to get to mine it made more sense to just jump in the other minivan and collect my bag at the other end........ i thought. a girl that i had just met promised she would look after it for me, not expecting that to be necessary i said thanks and went to jump on the other bus only to find that it wasnt leavin yet. this bothered me slightly but i was under the impression that the agent had another office at the other end and my bag would simply be left there for me to collect. so we drive down a dirt road to the drop off point when a random Lao dude comes runnin up to me tryin to tell me something about my bag and my friends, all i could gage from the conversation was that the boat wouldnt
wait and they left for Don Det without me, as to where my bag was i had no idea and after a quick scout around with no joy i board the little wooden boat. at the other side i step off the boat onto a large log that they are using as a stepping stone onto the clay stairs of the river bank expecting to find the girls there with my bag, however all i found were some Lao villagers going about there business who spoke very little English and could only tell me that some girls went left and some girls went right (this was a great help) i walked both ways for a little bit, only to find nothing, not a tourist in sight. so there i sat pondering on what to do, considering going and getting the boat back to the other side to look for it as there was no sign of anything on the island. by this point i had pretty much resided myself to the fact that i no longer had a bag or any clothes and would probably see some locals wearing my stuff on my return. luckily i keep my valuables in
the waterfall
it wasnt quite a waterfall, more of a collection of lots of little waterfalls my small ruck sack that i keep with me, but it didnt look like there were any kind of shops on this tiny island so i would be pretty smelly pretty quickly. at that point one of the Lao guys i had asked earlier said to me that there was another drop off point on the north of the island, so off i went with the tiny hope that i will find this girl that i had only known for 5 minutes and that she would have looked after my bag for all this time, i was less than optimistic. as i got further north after about 10 minutes there were suddenly more touristy things like an internet cafe and places to eat and i bumped into an Israely guy i had met on the sleeper bus who told me that he had seen the girls a while ago at a restaurant 5 minitues walk away. i now had a glimmer of hope and at the most northern point of the island sat the girl with her friends and my bag next to them, relief is no where near a strong enough word for what i felt at the sight
waterfall rapids
view from the rock we sat and smoked on by the waterfall of my bag. i soon learned that this was where everyone except me was dropped off for some reason and as i was thanking the girls profusely the Israely guy (Chen) came over and said to come and join them and share a room to save some money, it turned out that the rooms were only 20,000 kip (1pound 15p) but even still Chen wanted to share. the concept of sharing with a complete stranger wasnt really ideal especially since there was only a double bed but Chen was still keen and after having my excuses squashed i reluctantly agreed. little did i know that this would be the beginning of 2 weeks of laughter and good times.
there was very little to do on the island so we basically spent 3 days locked in a continuous cycle of smoking, laughing, eating, smoking, laughing, eating. one day we rented bikes and cycled to the other island Don Khon which was pretty much the same except it had a waterfall that we sat and of course smoked by for a while before going in search of the almost extinct Irrawaddy dolphins. after cycling in the heat for what seemed like an
eternity, stoned and feeling like we'd just spent a week in a prison shower from our less than comfortable seats we finally found civilisation and a guy who said he would take us on his boat to find the dolphins. however by this point it was soon to be gettin dark and after seeing a picture of the Irrawaddy's we decided that we wasnt missing much and headed back.
for those who remember Vaughn from Southgate, i bumped into him (which was pretty random) one evening in a bar and spent the rest of the evenin on our porch havin a smoke and catchin up. of all the remotest place in the world to bump into an old friend Don Det is definately close to the top of the list.
the other couple of days were largely uneventful or at least i dont remember anything else happening, most time was spent chillin on the porch of our huts overlooking the Mekong with Tomer Roi and Chen just smoking and laughing with the occasional trip to the bakery and local shop for munchies.
It was a tough 3 days but somehow we pulled through it LOL.
next stop Cambodia!
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