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Published: January 6th 2010
Don Det
Merry Christmas!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 short journey was a lovely glide through the waters of the Mekong, past a couple of islands covered in lush scrub, landing on a small sandy beach at the village of Don Det. This proved to be almost entirely made up of very simple, lovely guesthouses/bungalows, bars, and restaurants for tourists - particularly the young and those who are not averse to the odd tipple, or two. A bit wierd, but very relaxed and friendly - and with enough life for the festive season. Behind the village stretched small rice fields; dogs, cows, buffalo, pigs and chickens roaming throughout.
We chose accommodation on one of the two streets, Sunset Strip rather than Sunrise Blvd, to ensure we got maximum sleep without the lively early morning sun
Don Det
View from our bungalow rousing us from our stupour. Our bungalow was much like all the rest - wooden, simple, with a balcony and two hammocks (shared toilet a wee walk away) but also jutted out further than the rest giving a beautiful view for sunset, and the rest of the day, from the hammock. All for around $3-4 per night...between us! And so we settled in for some truely lazy days which passed in a bit of a blur to be honest, a well earned rest. We mostly moved for food, of course, and had a couple of fun evenings in 'town' - made most fun by watching the inebriated float past us - we may have joined in too.
Christmas day arrived, managed to float its way down the Mekong and pop in, finding us ready with tinsel on our bungalow and Santa (Farther Christmas as he's better known but Rach will hand out the chastisment if I call him that) hats on our heads. We opened our stockings from each other in the morning (we'd had to give Santa a bit of help there), had a traditional Chrimbo breakkie (eggs an bread), hired some bikes and headed off for our
Don Det
Sunset from our bungalow most active day on the island. We headed along some lovely sand paths through the rice fields (traditional Chrimbo all the way!) heading south to Li Phi Falls - an area of jagged rocks with the river twisting and rushing its way through - and then right to the South of the island to a lovely, quiet area of beach. We found ourselves a quite spot and spent a few hours swimming in the slow flowing pool, surrounded by forest and rocks, and reading in the sand. It was lovely. We then headed back up to town, via the even quieter Don Khon for lunch (again, traditional Christmas fried rice), settling back in to our hammocks for the rest of the afternoon. After opening our final pressies to each other, we headed off for Christmas diner overlooking the Mekong with a very nice, fun Dutch couple from the bungalow next to ours. There was then just about time for some more night time hammocking, beer and G&T keeping us company, before we collapsed, exhausted, in to a bed under the mossie net.
Throughout all of this, of course, we wore the Santa hats lest anyone forget what day it
Don Det
G&T from our bungalow! was.
And I'm glad we did - with the stunning backdrop of the Mekong River gliding by, gentle red sunsets and fishermen casting their nets from their long boats (not to mention the sweaty humidity and need for sun cream) it didn't necessarily look, taste or smell like Christmas. But our first married Chrimbo was lovely!
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Cat
non-member comment
Ho ho ho!
It looked like you two had a super amazing day - bless you for the hats! That's proper christmas spirit right there. Am loving the blog and keeping up with you both and I am increasingly jealous. Sat here in Leeds at my desk at work with 5 inches of snow outside and it keeps on falling. I love snow, of course, but snow when you are trapped at work is not as good. Sending love and hugs to you both on your adventures x xx Cat