Blogs from Don Det, South, Laos, Asia - page 7

Woke up about 930ish, Karen was still asleep but it was a lovely day (and already piping hot!) outside and i had the dilemma of yoga or a swim, with the heat the swim won, tho decided that bikram yoga could be quite good here with the heat, but there'll always be tomorrow ;-) We'd planned a bike ride over to the neighbouring island Don Khone later so didnt want to knacker myself out too much and the beach was calling :-) So had a dip, some sunbathing, breakfast on the hammock - yes we still have a hammock even though we don't have a bamboo hut so all good :) Around lunchtime we set off for our bike ride, we cycle for about half an hour up to the bridge where Don Det meets Don ... read more

Today we had another lazy day and were productive only when we bought our bus tickets to Bangkok. We did go to the tour place at 12:00, but the guy wasn’t there, so we have rescheduled the meeting to 19:00…hopefully he’ll be there. Anyways, the bus seems to be about the same price to have them make all the connections for you rather than to do it on our own. So we found a place that gave it to us for 240,000 kip each ($30) and we have to meet at the restaurant/guesthouse/tour agency at 11 tomorrow morning. We could have bought a bus to Ubon in Thailand and then switched to train, but it was way more expensive. So first we go to Pakse by van and then take a bus to Ubon and then ... read more

Today we slept in until we rose (hey, we’d had a long couple of days) and at about 12:30 or 13:00 went to lunch and rented bikes. We had been told that Don Kane island was the more touristy one and thought it would be worth it to wander around there. It was a short and very bumpy ride to the bridge connecting the two and we were unhappy to have to pay to get onto the island. We didn’t really know where we were going so we just started riding and ended up at Long Beach. There are three restaurant huts there and I think it’s the place you have to go to in order to catch a boat to see the dolphins. We just wanted to explore and I wanted to cool off in ... read more

We travelled down to Vientiene, the capital city of Laos, in a group of 7 - Charlie, Nicky, Allen, Lindsay, Cecilia, Em and I. Vientiene is not what I expected for the capital (and easily the biggest) city in Laos: quiet, unexciting, expensive and not much to it really. I guess it is still developing though as there was construction everywhere. We arranged to meet up with the others later and Em and I set off for Pha That Luang, which is this massive golden centre piece to the city - it is in fact a religious statue. It was pretty cool, gleaming in the late afternoon sun, although we were too late to go inside. There were also some neat temple buildings around it. Actually on the way there we passed Patuxai which is a ... read more

Il fallait d’une façon ou d’une autre que je mette un terme à la folie Vangvieng, poursuivre ma route, et décider de ma prochaine étape. J’hésitais à faire une halte à Vientiane, la capitale, car à en croire les gens et les guides, la ville ne présente aucun réel intérêt, si ce n’est qu’elle est une étape forcée depuis Vangvieng. C’est pourquoi, j’ai finalement décidé de rejoindre directement l’Extrême-Sud du Laos, sur une île où l’atmosphère est à des années-lumière de l’utopie que je venais de vivre. En fait, découvrir les 4000 îles était l’une de mes plus grandes curiosités concernant le pays. Tous les voyageurs qui y sont allés en gardent un souvenir impérissable. Pourquoi ? Et bien, tout simplement parce qu’il n’existe pas d’autre lieu au Laos capable de rivaliser avec les couchers de ... read more