The adventure's of Bobby the Dog (4000 Islands)

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Meet Bobby the Dog. Bobby came and stayed at our hut on the first day and never really left our sides for 3 days. He slept outside our huts, came for walks when we went exploring and to the restaurant when we were eating. This is Bobby’s blog.

Before he starts his blog I’ll do mine first! The journey to the 4000 islands was as much adventurous as it was painful. Let me explain. Firstly we had being out in Vang Vieng the night before. The first bus brought us for about 10 minutes to a so called bus station. It was more like someone’s front garden. We waited in the searing heat until a bus came. We boarded that and it took us to Vientiane. There we had to ring a guy to bring us to his office. From there we took a tuk-tuk to another bus station. Me, Tim and Lars had to hang on at the back as the tuk-tuk was full of people and bags. Next up was our sleeper bus. We thought it would be a lot better than it was. We had to sleep at the back of the bus. Five of us in a row, that had the space of about three. I was really pee’d of but could do nothing about it. Luckily Tim and Sarah were beside us. Thankfully, as I didn’t fancy throwing my arm over some stranger! The bus wasn’t so bad in the end and we did get some sleep. When we got off that, we got a tuk-tuk to another office and then a mini-van to the 4000 islands, but not before a boat journey to the island we were staying on. Exhausted would have been an understatement.

In a bit. DH

Bobby
These strange people arrived on my island. They looked a bit confused and disorientated so I decided to look after them for a few days. On the first day they went a tour called ‘The Happy Boat’. This involved a small wooden boat to a small island in the area. The guy doing the tour called Pang, brought some beers and a big cat fish for a BBQ. Everyone chilled out while Pang made the BBQ and enjoyed the Beer Lao. It was quite and peaceful and had a feeling of Gulliver’s Island. The cat fish was very tasty. Even though Darren doesn’t like fish, he still enjoyed it. After dinner everyone had a swim before tubing back down the river to the island. I waited at the huts while they were gone and everyone looked pretty happy to see me when they got home. Most of the time Darren, Michelle, Sarah and Tim just chilled in the hammocks out side the huts. Every now and again they would give me some water and at dinner time a few sneaky bits of food under the table. Marc and Lars brought some beers over one evening and we all watched an amazing sunset.

One day Darren, Michelle and Sarah went for a walk for to the nearby island called Don Khong. I would walk along with them, about 10m ahead. Every now and again I would stop and look back to see if they were ok. I made it for about 2km of the journey but the walk they had in front of them didn’t appeal to me. It was another 2km to the bridge and was very exposed to the afternoon sun. I knew they would be fine so I went back to see how Tim was in the hut as he was feeling unwell. When they got back to the hut they were tired and thirsty. They did say though that the scenery was amazing and a good insight into rural Laos. They found it strange that the island had no electricity and only ran generators between 6pm and 10pm. The facilities on the island are pretty basic, with only mud pathways through the village. Water buffalo are everywhere and there are 100’s of chickens running around. They said it was very basic and under developed, but romantic that people still live very simple lives. Darren said he could only imagine that rural Ireland would have been like this over 100 years ago, except without the tourism!!

I was sad to see them go and was to emotional to walk the whole way to the pier. I got within ten metres and then disappeared before they could say goodbye. I’m not too good at good byes you see. Anyway, they said they would come back again in 10 years to see if the place is any different. Hopefully I’ll still be here.

In a bit. BD (Bobby the Dog)

Song of the blog: Bring It On Down - Oasis

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