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Published: September 4th 2006
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Don Det
The sunset from our balcony Well it had been a pretty hectic time to date trying to squeeze all and sundry into each brief stop before jumping back onto tightly packed buses to do it all again. Si Phan Don was our chance to relax by the river - the toughest choices being where to eat dinner at night and whether to lie in the hammock or sit on the chair - no really.
Day 1.
After leaving Christophe in Pakse (he was off to Don Khong for a few days) we took a 'bus' ie. small truck with rows of seats in the back down to Nakasang - the departure point for Don Det. Luckily the driver took an instant shining to Nunny so we ended up in the cab rather than squashed into the back with the 40 or so Laotians - thank god for Ropehead.
After a couple of hours we jumped straight on a boat and were whisked across the Mekong to Mr Sidaes place. At the 'quieter' end of Don Det ie. devoid of generators and drunken Monkey Bar patrons. Our riverside hut was on stilts over the river and consisted of a private balcony with 2 hammocks side
Don Det
The boat on the way over Dgadga dgadga by side and a pretty basic room with heaps of holes (but fortunately a mosquito net).
We instantly took a shining to the place which was run by an honest couple with four cute kids running around causing chaos for the mother. Mr Sidae meanwhile was expanding the empire - building another bungalow two doors down from ours.
We decided that we should explore the islands (incl. Don Khon) on foot much to the amusement of a tour of Thais that cruised past us in their 'taxi' and a few punters that passed us on their old school bicycles. Afer a few kms we reached the railway bridge over to Don Khon and then the waterfalls (some long name Tat Somethingorother?) which were quite impressive given the sheer amount of water flowing through them and the ballsy fishermen who would scamper over the slippery rocks with their nets to pull out some substantial sized catfish by the netful.
Our walk back saw the light fade over the rice paddies which was quite majestic and we settled in for a night of reading books by candle light (no electricity).
Day 2, 3 and 4.
More reading and
Don Det
The riverside bungalows from the water kicking back on balconies doing bugger all - ah bliss.
Went tubing down the shore of Don Det with some Aussie and Californian blokes who had enjoyed far too much happy pizza and still had Vang Vieng hangups, note here the waterfalls/rapids were about 1km downstream so you didn't want to miss your departure point ($40,000 fine for the Laotians if you lose a falang).
Chris arrived and just happened to move into a bungalow 2 doors down (even before realising we were there - how uncanny!
Went to another waterfall with a group of Kiwi, Aussie, Hawaiian and English folk. Chased some Laos kids round who seemed awfully frightened of this rubbery sap from a tree growing nearby, but giggling all the time and met a German girl that was doing some aid work in Phnom Penh who gave us some cool contacts for volunteer work.
What else?? Ate, slept, played cards and thats about it!
Day 5
Went on a big mission in the rain (after watching it fall for most of the morning) on some ancient bikes over some muddy and rocky terrain (Nunny was having a ball - judging from the singing) as we traversed
Don Det
Our resident guard dog in his infamous pose big pits of mud and manure all the way over to the other side of Don Khon. Andrew took a detour and discovered a sensational newly built suspension bridge over some serious rapids which were flowing underneath.
So we all ventured into the middle (despite signs in Laos with the skull and crossbones on them??) for the photo-op and walked out alive!
Th mission back in the pitch black was even funnier navigating the same pools of mud for about 4km except this time with absolutely no light whatsoever and traversing windy 30cm wide paths through rice paddies. With blind faith we made it close to home when the owner of the bikes came up behind us on a motorbike (the search party) and escorted us by the light of his motorbike back into town. Needlewss to say the only substantial stack that occurred was when Chris misjudged almost the last bridge before town and ended up in the water (I think he must have been blinded by the light??)
Day 6
Took the boat back to the mainland after getting many 'Shuk Di' armbands from our favourite restauranteurs and bungalow owners, including some funky witchdoctor-like ("Bad
Si Phan Don
Laos transport options spirits out, good spirits in, now good luck be with you for your journey") We gave the kids a travel connect four set we had and gave them about one day to lose all the pieces given that the 3 year old had a habit of turning it all upside down and shaking it above her hear while screaming with glee. All in all a top time - thoroughly recommended!
PS. Thank you for all your comments we do read them but find it hard to reply to all of them but we try... Thanks fans!!
PPS. Yes we are about 3 weeks behind our current position for all of you we've spoken to on the phone - for all of you that get call after call with no one on the other end - you are not being stalked (well maybe) but attribute it to the shitehouse phones in SE Asia. We can hear you though...which is often rather amusing!
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siobhan
non-member comment
you guys suck
im so loving the blog, but as you have more and more cool and amazing adventures i get more and more jealous