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Cute Kid
He came up to say helloWe finally arrived in Laos with some regret at not being more organised. I guess it is one of those, "you live and learn" moments. It was well worth the effort though as Laos is amazing! Arriving across the border the difference in the landscape was marked. It was more green and luscious. We drove to a small harbour town and got a long tail boat the rest of the way. We had to pass through some of the "Four Thousand Islands" before Don Det revealed itself.
It is an amazing little Island with lovely quaint wooden huts spattered across the coastline. We decided on one that had a toilet/shower attached, two hammocks and a fan (for use when the electricity was on 6-10pm). We had to pay a little extra for these luxuries of course and the room came to a grand total of five dollars!
The first night there we made the mistake of going out a little bit late, as soon as we were finished dinner the electricity went out. We went for some post curfew drinks at a bar, but went home at 12pm resolving that we would start a bit earlier the next day.
Cat
Even the cats in Laos are laidback. Next day woke up at 7am. Was so bloody hot and sweaty in our "luxurious" room. The mattress started to give off this pungent smell of decade old sweat and vinegar as the temperature started to soar. It was the best alarm clock I have ever had. We ended up, fed, watered and on the touristy rode for site seeing on our trusty bicycles all by 9am, that was a first.
We went to a beautiful waterfall in the hopes of a good swim, only to discover that there were raging white rapids. We decided to pass on the swimming, especially after seeing a sign that told us the name of some westerner who had met his maker after swimming there.
One of the days we spent soaking up the rays on the beach, this was literally cut short though when they decided to cut down a tree that was overlooking the beach. Of course this was done in a Laos way and meant one poor soul cutting the tree by hand while a bunch of men held it by a rope. Obviously the idea was that they would pull it away in that direction averting any
Monk Throwing Water
Let he who is without sin throw the first bucket of water! Chaos insues. damage being done to buildings. Well the guy was pumping sweat in the killer heat, it took the unlucky guy about three hours to cut the thing down! Eventually it came down with a big thud, with men dashing all over the place. I will upload a video when I get a good internet connection. The funniest thing about the whole event was...when it came to cutting up the tree to dispose of it, suddenly they whip out a big chainsaw! Why they didn't use this to cut down the tree in the first place is beyond me...the mind boggles. Perhaps he lost a bet or something!
Another day we spent in a Reggae Bar which had electricity during the day. We managed to get one of our MP3 players plugged into their speaker system, so we had the luxury of listening to music all day. We just sat there drinking, playing card games (technically snap is a card game ok!) and jumping into the river. The bar jutted out over the mekong and had a makeshift diving platform that was about six metres high, so we spent the day jumping off this. It was a good introduction to
Burnt Out House
Wonder what happened here jumping from heights before we reached the infamous swings of Vang Vien. Yes I know, we are very easily entertained!
Aside from that, our time in Don Dhet was spent sipping Beer Laos, taking in the sunshine and celebrating the Laos New Year. This is a three day event that is a highlight to any trip to Laos. We went to a temple for the traditional ceremony of prayers that takes place. Then the fun began...a monk was the first to start the action. A huge water fight ensued. After about five hours of mayhem and when the sun had well and truly gone down we headed back to our respective homes to go get clean and dried up. We needn't have bothered as the next three days would be much the same with barely a dry moment.
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