http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , Laos , South en-us Thu, 07 Jan 2010 05:57:31 +0000 Thu, 07 Jan 2010 05:57:31 +0000 And so from Pakse we headed back south to Si Phan Don or Four Thousand Islands on the Cambodian border for a Christmas so far removed from what either of us had experienced before ....and swiftly sinking in to a hammock induced slumber for four days. We arrived on boxing day getting a wooden boat from the bus drop off point to Don Det the 'livelier' of the settlements in Si Phan Don. The sh http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Don-Det/blog-465343.html After getting off the Vientiane bound bus at Vieng Kham along route 13 we set off in search of sawngthaew these are lsquojumborsquo tuk tuks that have a fixed route and a fixed price per person they pretty much operate like a bus. We found one heading to Ban Khoun Kham also known as Ban Na Hin and made the 41km journey east along route 8 we arrived at the central market and headed off in http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Tham-Lot-Kong-Lo/blog-457602.html Salut tout le monde Le 21 au matin on avait prevu de se louer une moto pour faire le tour des plus interessantes chutes du plateau bolaven mais le gars a la location nous a suggere de partir deux jours. On a pas ete tres difficile a convaincre etant donne que Pakse n'a pas grand chose a offrir. D'abord on est parti sur une moto dont l'odometre ne marchait pas on est donc revenu pour en av http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Tat-Lo/blog-456900.html Because of a scheduling glitch regarding the Vat Phou Cruise we ended up with an extra day between it and our flight to Siem Reap so we took advantage of the time to check out the Bolaven Plateau just east of Pakse Laos. Pakse is the third largest municipality in Laos after Vientiane and Savannakhet although I don't think any of them has as many as 100000 inhabitants the entire country has o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Pakxe/blog-454050.html Savannakhet is a mediumsize urban town of about 50000 with the feel of a place that was once more elegant and important than it is now. During French colonial days it was the center of commerce for southern Laos. Savannakhet is set on the Mekong River and the county of Thailand can clearly be viewed looking like the future not 500 feet across the river. Unlike in Luang Prabang Savannakhetr http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Savannakhet/blog-444353.html This was truly a quiet town and if this was the hub of Southern Laos then I can only imagine what the rest of the region is like. You can see French influence all throughout the town in the set up the buildings and the food. It wasn't a bad thing but I was expecting to maybe see a few more foreigners. I saw none the first day. By the time I left I made it up to 11 I think. My time here was basic http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Savannakhet/blog-442470.html While every bus journey in Laos is an adventure the trip to Savanakhet was one of the best yet. The tenhour ride featured one fascination after another.First I watched as a mother assisted her twoyear old son in urinating. On the floor. Of the bus. From her lap The bus driverrsquos assistant a boy who collects passengerrsquos money and helps with loading and unloading objected to this m http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/blog-442420.html Ok now we finally have the proper chance to update our blog I believe the last proper update was written around the time of Miss Teen Thailand 2009... an exciting day all round... since then we have travelled on into Laos and have carried on having a fantastic time... from where we left off last time Irsquoll fill in all the main bits... From Chiang Mai we took a kinda ting to Lampang on some http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Tha-Khaek/blog-442018.html There was a fabulous morning market close to where I was staying. Well everything was close to where I was staying. Don Kong is a tiny island. To get to the market I exited my guesthouse walked across the street and walked across a big rice field via a dirt path cut through the middle. This market amused me to no end. It was a collection of maybe 30 stalls but it was obviously this was where http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Si-Phan-Don/blog-441489.html Don Kong was spectacularly peaceful dirt roads in every direction a few houses kids chickens and goats milling about people riding bicycles no cars. The few guesthouses were all within 500 feet of where I arrived so I compared a few and found a nice room with a fan and a bathroom for 50000 kip a night about 5.50. I appeared to be the only tourist currently visiting the island which was http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Si-Phan-Don/blog-441487.html From Vientiane I traveled fifteen hours to the southernmost part of Laos near the Cambodia border. I figured I might as well get as far away from Luang Prabang as possible to check out the other side of the country while I had the chance. The area is called Si Pan Don or 4000 Islands though I think it's really only about 10 islands and 3990 tiny pieces of land that emerge in the dry season. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/blog-441485.html We didn't really know what was ahead of us heading into Laos. We'd heard that it was an amazing place but nobody could have prepared us for how beautiful this country is or how much fun we'd have here. We started off in the the south of Laos and Paulo found his perfect paradise island. We arrived on Don Det in a small boat suitable for no more than 5 people but in true Asian fashion it was loade http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Don-Det/blog-435354.html So it turned out that Pakse was not worth writing a blog for Actually a small town with not a lot happening. The museum that is open daily was shut it rained and after seeing many wats there were just more of the sameSo instead I shall tell you about how we got out of Laos and into the North of Cambodia en route to Siem Reap...We left Pakse early in the morning and took a bumpy bus to the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/blog-433756.html We arrived in Don Det around noon with a group of backpackers. Sarah and I chose one of the first guesthouses we saw only 20 000 kip 2 CND a night. It closely resembled a garden shed but was conveniently situated along the Mekong with two hammocks on the porch. After putting our bags down we continued on with the group to a bakery owned and operated by a Western Australian man. Sarah and I w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Don-Det/blog-431103.html After having some breakfast at the hostel in Pakse we again got the same contraption to the lsquolocal bus stationrsquo. The guesthouse owner informed us that lsquobusrsquosrsquo left on the hour and would only take about an hour to get to Champasak. We arrived at the bus station around 845am giving ourselves a bit of time to find the bus we then realized that the lsquolocal bus st http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Champasak/blog-431098.html If you love cruising but would like to try a new adventure that will take you closer to the sights and sounds of incredible destinations then small ship cruising might be right up your alley.Imagine seeing wildlife from just a few feet off shore instead of through binoculars hundreds of feet away. Cruise up small fjords seeing scenery that few people will ever see. Land at small villages or towns http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Savannakhet/blog-427795.html 27.07.09 Early in the morning I got on a ridicously crowded minibus from Ban Lung to Stung Treng to get on the next minibus there which brought us to the Laos border. The border itself was not more than 2 tiny wooden houses where we had to pay one dollar in order to exit Cambodia and 2 dollars to enter Laos. We just walked to the Laos side and got on the next minibus which brought us to Si Phan Do http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Si-Phan-Don/blog-427303.html As if we weren't relaxed enough after our stay in Vang Vieng we decided to head down to Don Det a little island in the middle of the Mekong river where life is about as relaxed as you can get. Getting there involved a flight to Savannakhet then a 3 hour mini bus ride to Pakse where we were originally supposed to fly to but apparently that airport was closed. it was a pretty nice trip though a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Don-Det/blog-426162.html So time for some adventure.I nath had wanted to do a challenging trek whille on this trip to SE Asia perferably in Laos as there seems to be less 'mass tourism treks' and the companies that offer them are often linked into financially supporting the communities travellers visit on the treks.We'd struggled finding a company who did 3 days 2 night treks into the deep jungle during the wet season http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Pakxe/blog-424648.html We set out from Pakse to visit the 4000 islands. A group of islands that appear as the Mekong fans out on Laos' southern border and into Cambodia.We had heard many reports of how laid back and beautiful these river islands were and although there were no beaches to speak of we were looking forward to being lazy in a hammock for a few days in the sun.The rain we had on the first day really took som http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Don-Det/blog-421990.html