Slowing down to the Laos pace of life

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Day 371: Sunday 5 July - An interesting journey

Six of us leave Vong Phaseud guesthouse at 9am and walk towards the ferry port. We have declined the offer of the guesthouse owner to take us in a mini-bus to Si Phan Don as he won’t budge on charging us 55,000 kip (£4) per person regardless if one of us take the bus or all five of us. He is being stupid, and clearly doesn’t need the money. Instead, we are more than happy to give 10,000 kip each to a family heading to Pakse on a sawngthaew full of bags of rice. They take us to the ferry port, across the river and then to the junction with the highway running north to south, where five of us get off heading south and Jess continues north with him to Pakse. For him, he’s made the equivalent of three days average pay in Laos. Money I’m sure he wasn’t expecting to make when he set off today, and only to drop us off where he was going anyway. For us, we save the 5,000 kip it would have cost us to cross the river (if you’re with a vehicle the vehicle is charged) and avoid two 3-4km walks on each side of the river, so it is mutually beneficial to both parties.

At the intersection we wait a matter of minutes before a sawngthaew pulls in. The truck is laden with pineapples and a family of three. When we finally agree on a price, he leaves his wife, child and pineapples at the junction and takes us south on the 100km journey to Si Phan Don. The journey turns sour when the Sawngthaew keeps breaking down. Initially it is every 10 kilometres or so, but it gets to the stage where every kilometre we have to stop. The radiator is smoking and is clearly overheated and we tell the driver to stop as he is in danger of wrecking his vehicle beyond repair. When we get out we realise that there has been a misunderstanding over payment of the journey. He thinks we have agreed to 50,000 kip each; we think we have agreed to 50,000 kip for the five of us. A heated debate ensues and we finally give him 20,000 kip each and start walking. The money we have given him represents probably the fair price for what has been a two hour journey which has left us in the middle of nowhere, 40 kilometres from Ban Nakasang where we need to reach. The driver though doesn’t see it this way. He feels that he has been cheated and keeps handing all of the money back and getting quite aggressive - very unlike the Laotian people. He’s mad and is trying to start his sawngthaew as we walk away. The vehicle won’t start, and he is also stuck in the middle of nowhere. If he had managed to start it, I’m sure he would have thrown the money at us. The five of us all feel sorry for the guy - there has clearly been a misunderstanding, and no wonder he was so keen to take us with a vehicle that wasn’t in any fit state. Hopefully he got back to his family later in the day and when he calmed down I’m sure he wasn’t out of pocket.

We manage to flag a pick up down after 5 minutes of walking and the others are too quick to climb into the back. I tell them we want to go to Ban Nakasang and ask them how much they want. They’re in a flash vehicle and are clearly quite affluent but it is still a very kind gesture to take us 10 kilometres past where they were going for no charge. In a decent vehicle that isn’t breaking down every few minutes we make quick progress and in half an hour we’re at the ferry port in Ban Nakasang. We get a ferry across to Don Khon, which one of the other tourists nearly tips over in his eagerness to get out.

Si Phan Don translates into English as 4000 islands. Thankfully the choice of which island to stay on is narrowed by the fact that only three are inhabited: Don Khong, Don Det and Don Khon. I ruled out Don Dhet as it is supposed to have a backpacker scene which is heading down the same slippery slope as Vang Vieng so that left me to choose between Don Khong and Don Khon. Initially I was going to go to Don Khong, the largest island as it is the most developed but changed my mind only last night to go to Don Khon. Mike and Trudi were heading there, as are the other four I came down from Champasak with so it just made more sense from a cost and friendship perspective. As long as I can get a room with a hammock, overlooking the Mekong and can watch the world going by reading a good book for a few days then I don’t care which island I’m on!

The five of us try a couple of guesthouses when we arrive on Don Khon before a thunderstorm strikes and we sit under cover for an hour or two until the rain stops. Lightning strikes within 100 metres of where we’re sat, and the noise from thunder has everyone jumping. I’ve never been that close to lightning before. Once the rain relents, we leave Kate with the bags, whilst Adam, Bernado, Christina and I look for somewhere to stay. We find a steal for 30,000 kip a night, which has a large deck area, with hammocks and deck chairs overlooking the Mekong and which looks out onto an island of coconut trees. It has 24 hour power too, which is a novelty on Don Khon and this all make up for the dark and dingy room.

It is 8 hours after leaving our guesthouse in Champasak this morning before we arrive in Souksan guesthouse. After the adventure earlier, the five of us all have a beer as the light fades over the river. Once it’s dark, I walk down through the village hoping to see Mike and Trudi. There must only be half a dozen restaurants so I have a fair chance of finding them, which I do, and get dinner with them, chatting until it’s closing time on the island which is early, about 10pm.

Day 372: Monday 6 July - A first day of doing nothing on Don Khon

There’s not a lot to do in the 4000 islands apart from cycle around them watching village life from close up and lazing around. Their appeal is in the simplicity of life and relaxing, doing very little. I spend the day reading and chilling out in the hammock until Mike and Trudi pop by in the early afternoon. We spend the rest of the afternoon having a long drawn out lunch. Over dinner we discuss riding around the islands tomorrow and Trudi mentions doing Cambodia together as our schedules are similar. That would be cool, and we agree to look into it tomorrow. We play cards and discuss how after four months in Southeast Asia we are beginning to tire of the place. Those words are probably a bit strong, but what I mean to say is that it is starting to become a bit ‘samey’. The countries have similar cultures, similar scenery, similar food, temples everywhere......and after the first few days once you’ve come to terms with the currency, learnt a few words of the language and figured how things work, the challenge disappears. That’s what I’m after, a new challenge. For Mike and Trudi, that new challenge will be India and Nepal which they’re excited about; for me it will be China. In many ways, particularly in reference to the language, I imagine this to be the ultimate challenge.

Day 373: Tuesday 7 July - Cycling Don Khon and Don Dhet

There is no need to set an alarm to get up early on Don Khon. If it isn’t the cockerels that wake you then it is the sound of an engine of a motorbike on the lane behind or of a longtail boat on the Mekong in front of my room or Papa our guesthouse owner blaring out some Lao music which sounds a bit like the demo on a synthesiser. But it doesn't matter today as I want to be up early to get the best of the weather before it gets too hot to cycle around the island or the common wet season late afternoon downpour comes to spoil the day.

The three of us hire bikes and cross the railway bridge - the only one the French built in the whole of Laos as they envisaged the islands to become a trading port - into Don Dhet. The scenery in Don Dhet is a lot more open than Don Khon, and covered in rice paddies. Farmers are working in the fields, planting rice, tilling fields, preparing paddies for planting. At one field I stop and I ask the farmer if I can plough his field! To my surprise he a) speaks English and b) agrees for me to steer his water buffalo along the field as it drags a plough behind it. I splodge into the mud and am soon controlling the beast as it walks slowly up the paddy. The buffalo doesn’t seem to like me and it soon bolts leaving me stranded in the field. I catch it up, remonstrate with it, shout some instructions in English and it just stares back at me in disbelief wondering what this crazy Falang (foreigner) is doing!!! The farmer is laughing and soon I give up realising that I’m not cut out for traditional farming methods and don a conical hat and smile for the camera. Mike and Trudi have been in hysterics whilst this has been going on for the last five minutes! What a great experience.

We cycle across Don Dhet, along the rocky road of what was once a railway line. We end up in the main village where all the backpacker accommodation is concentrated. It is more developed than Don Khon but doesn’t seem overrun with foreigners like Vang Vieng was but it is definitely heading that way. There does seem better restaurants (my only gripe with Don Khon) and better accommodation but I’m still happy with the choice I made of staying on Don Khon. We stop at an internet cafe come bookshop where I catch up with the outside world on a snail pace connection for ten minutes before I give up and Mike and Trudi find an India guidebook cheap. We then continue cycling around the island until we come across a group of boys who are playing ‘soldiers’. One of them pretends to shoot me, so of course being a big kid I play along, acting if I’ve been shot, staggering off my bike and then rolling around the ground in agony until I die. The children find this hilarious and it’s another enjoyable experience with the friendly locals.

We finish circumnavigating the whole island of Don Dhet and finish up in the village where we have a relaxed lunch and order what proves to be probably the only decent meal on the 4000 islands which doesn’t involve a) the portion being so small you need to buy a dessert or another meal; b) the service being so slow, that you have to remind them that you’re actually there; c) you having to add up the bill for them as they can’t work it out; d) you have to spell it out clearly, repeating yourself several times what you want; e) argue whether you’ve paid or not; or f) the food is just plain rubbish. In short, the only thing that raises your stress level on the 4000 islands is having a meal.

We finish our meal and an enjoyable half day on Don Dhet and cycle back to Don Khon. Trudi heads back to their guesthouse, but me and Mike cycle around Don Khon. We ride first to Tat Sompamit waterfalls, a spectacular series of cascades in the Mekong rather than a waterfall. With it being the wet season, they are in their full glory and well worth the visit. We leave the cascades and continue around to the south of the island along the railway line which ends in Ban Hong Khon village. The village faces Cambodia, which lies just one kilometre across the Mekong. We look across to Cambodia where our adventure will be taking us next before getting back on the bikes to cycle back around the remainder of the island. We don’t get far before one man in the village stops and asks us if we would like a beer. We get off and join a group of half a dozen villagers sharing a couple of beers before the guy asks us if we’ll buy a second beer. He’s clearly looking for us to pay for him to drink for free all afternoon, so we say our goodbyes which fall on deaf ears.

On the way back around to drop the bikes off we pass the others who are returning from an afternoon at a waterfall with Papa. The trip involved a few bottles of Lao Lao and by the time I head out to get dinner with Mike and Trudi they are all very drunk. These four can drink.....I think just about every night I’ve been in there company they’ve been drunk!

Day 374: Wednesday 8 July - A second day of doing nothing on Don Khon

I decided yesterday that I wasn’t yet ready to leave the 4000 islands. I need another day of relaxation before I’m ready to cross the border to Cambodia. I can’t work out if I want the extra day to extend my love affair with Laos, or whether I need the extra day to fully relax in to the pace of village life.

I start my day by washing my rucksack again which I’ve now decided smells like rotten fish after one of the bus journeys in northern Laos. I buy some washing powder and then do as the locals would, walk down to the river side and wash it in the Mekong. Kate and Adam (Bernado and Christina left earlier today) watch on as I balance on some planks of wood beside the river and manage to almost fall in. My day’s work finished before 10am I can sit back read a book, chat to Kate and Adam and watch life on the Mekong with not a care in the world save my knee which is swollen after yet another sandfly bite.

After finishing my book I walk down to see if Mike and Trudi are about. They are so we discuss Cambodia. Our schedules are similar, they want to be in Bangkok in late July and I want to be in Vietnam around the same time, so we decide to travel together in Cambodia for the next couple of weeks. I’m quite excited about travelling with them as they are really good friends now and it will be a great way to end our travels together after four months of meeting them over four different countries. After getting dinner together I head back straight away for an early night. It has been a really hot day today and I’m dehydrated consequently I feel really tired. A storm passes by which keeps me awake for an hour or so.

I have enjoyed Don Khon, the pace of life, sharing a relaxing time with old and new friends alike and getting a close up of village life. In some ways I could stay longer but in others I’m ready to move on to Cambodia. I need some decent food for one thing, probably the only downside to life on Don Khon. There’s not much to do but that’s just perfect, a great way to end a fabulous four weeks in Laos.

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