Loation Sensation II - Been There, Don Det, Bought the (Beer Lao) T-Shirt

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Apologies for the increasing length of our blogs, this one will be short as we have been doing NOTHING for the last week!!!

We left Ubon Ratchathan, shunning the V.I.P. bus in favour of a cheaper ‘local option’ involving the old Bob Marley and the Wailers tour bus (see pic of G writing previous blog) followed by a ute-cum-tuk tuk that could fit 45 people at a squeeze, which they proved. We crossed the Thai-Laos border only to see our only option to reach Pakse was on the same V.I.P. bus that would have taken us all the way. We boarded the most luxurious bus we had ever been on in South East Asia having saved 50p!!

We left immediately from Pakse to the 4000 islands at the very Southern tip of Laos. Here the Mekong fans out to allow (as the name would suggest) thousands of islands, from small clumps of vegetation 2m wide to inhabited stretches of land 10km long. The actual number of islands changes between the wet and dry seasons, depending on the height of the Mekong.

Don Khon and Don Det are two of the biggest islands and are joined by a bridge. We stayed on Don Det in a riverside bungalow that cost 80p per night where we spent most days reading in a hammock (see pic). Electricity is only available on Don Det between 6pm, following the quite spectacular sunsets (see pics), and 10pm when the generators are switched on. Not only does this make getting back from pubs quite interesting but it also makes for some pretty illuminating (sorry) revelations about how we manipulate our body clocks. At 10.30pm, after 30 minutes of darkness, save for a candle round which many card games would be held, your body just shuts down and you yearn for bed. The sun rises at about 5.30am when all locals rise simultaneously and compete in a ‘who can wake the most farang’ noise competition.

As mentioned we took this opportunity to do very little as we were getting a little travel fatigued; in our most active moments we rode to a beach (see pic) and waterfall (see pic) on Don Khon, went fishing (see pic) and took a trip further a field to South East Asia’s largest waterfall (see pic) but most of the time was spent reading in hammocks, playing Chinese chess (which Chris, a lad from Yorkshire, taught G) and of course getting reacquainted with Beer Lao.

After 6 days and nights of R&R we headed north to Champasak on a tuk tuk that transported fish, frogs (that escaped) and 15 very confused passengers. Here we visited Wat Phu; the impressive remains of a Khmer temple, set in the mountains with spectacular views over the Mekong valley (see pic). The sight is managed and protected as a UNESCO world heritage site and the vast complex was built in the 6th century to thank Shiva and Ganesha (showing how Buddhism and Hinduism are intrinsically linked) for a natural spring at the top of the mountain that delivers a rather unimpressive trickling of water that just runs down the face of the mountain where it is collected behind the temple. Stone carvings of an elephant (see pic) and a crocodile were more impressive.

Whilst Wat Phu was stunning, another reason that we will never forget Champasak is for the restaurant on the banks of the Mekong, run by a guy who was slightly more effeminate than Mr Humphries in Are You Being Served. Whenever we attempted to order anything from his menu, he would look at us as if we were totally insane for suspecting he may actually offer this dish, tell us he didn’t serve it and then hysterically laugh whilst his dog barked at us!

We left Champasak for Pakse (on a similar ute-cum-tuk tuk where they beat there personal best and squeezed 48 people on and made G sit on the overhang at the back of the vehicle, suspended over both the road and the exhaust pipe), where we decided a V.I.P. bus was in order to get us back to Thailand.

More pics here.

Thanks everyone again for the messages, please keep them coming.

Love as always

G & Nat xxx

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Comments

[Ben]

What Phu?
I can't quite see what the Elephant is engraving (possibly hidden behind the plant?) but its impressive for such huge 'hands' to even hold the tools.