Blog no. 4: 4000 AMAZING ISLANDS - SI PHAN DON

August 19 2015

Blog no. 4: 4000 AMAZING ISLANDS - SI PHAN DON

1.2.2015 (Pakse - Don Khon) MIGHTY MEKONG

When we arrived in Pakse, we were a bit fed up with the bus and before we could get off there were men coming on board and »kindly« asking to drive us to the city center. Luckily we knew we were already there, so we didn't let them trick us. As we were waiting for our luggage we saw that somebody's luggage was his scooter and they had a bit of trouble pulling it out ☺.

We wanted to go to Bolaven Plateau which isn't far from Pakse and they had one day tours there. But as it was already about 9 o'clock we found only one agency (Green Discovery) that would take us there the same day and it was way too expensive for our budget, I think it cost about $ 60 for one person. The town itself was nothing special so we decided to head off directly to 4000 Islands (Si Phan Don). We were lucky because our night bus arrived quite early so we had time to catch the van. I think the drive to the dock took us about 2,5 hours. We boarded the small boat which at first didn't feel the safest, but we forgot all about it as we were amazed by the beaty of the Mekong again. But this time it was so different, because of so many islands it was more alive, more green and more beautiful than ever!!

Our destination was Don Khon and we were very happy about the choice. As we were "a bit" tired from all the driving we went to the first restaurant and found a cozy place and just relaxed - and this was the perfect place for it! Everything was shouting "take it easy", so we did ☺. We ordered fresh coconuts and the guy first sharpened a long stick to bring down the coconuts from the palm tree - and they fell in the Mekong so he could pick them up and open them. Now that's a fresh coconut, although it wasn't the best, but is was so worth the experience and the meat was very delicious. It it a good choice to order a fresh coconut if you are hungry, because while waiting you can nib on the coconut ☺. As we realised later the menus on restaurants on the island were about the same (some had excactly the same menus) and they didn't speak English the best, but you could communicate some things, you just didn't know excactly what you will get ☺. We took quite some time to relax and then realised that people are coming to the island with new boats - not a lot of them, but still. We didn't have bungalows yet, so we went searching for them. There is one long road in the village and there are quite a few accomodations along it. At that time of day a lot of them were already full, so we spent quite some time looking around and trying to find a nice and cheap place for the next few nights. At last we were fed up with the search and we took a nice bungalow with a really friendly owner. It didn't have riverview as I wanted, but it was very nice.

And then we continued relaxing - I got one Lao dark and it was amazing ☺, we showered and enjoyed doing nothing. We were happy that we didn't have any plans for that day besides eating and getting a massage - I think there is only one massage saloon there and they do a good leg massage (if a guy gives it and he is very strong), which is good for tired feet ☺. There are quite a lot of restaurants there and we were very satisfied with the food almost everywhere - wery tasty and cheap, perfect combination ☺. We had dinner at the riverfront restaurant, which was a wonderful way to enjoy the lovely sunset over the river!!

*2.2.2015 (Don Khon) RELAXING***

In the morning we rented bicycles and went around searching for a new place to sleep as my idea was to have a river view ☺. As we were fed up with the search we rented a really cheap bungalow (for 60.000 Kip), in the second place on the left if you come from the bridge from Don Det. It was basic, but good for that price and we decided that we won't be moving for the next few days, because searching for a place to stay can be quite tiresome sometimes. Don Khon is a nice island to explore by bike - not too big, but there are two themples, two waterfalls and an old French railway locomotive. There is an interesting story about how they built railway on the island so that the ships could pass through - because of the waterfalls and rapids this part of Mekong can not be used by ships.

The bridge over the river takes you to Don Det (we saw a great T-shirt sign: Been there, Don Det ☺), which is a bit smaller and more for parties. You can find some peaceful places too a bit outside the pier, closer to the bridge. But we preferred Don Khon - it was so peaceful, relaxed and yet had everything we needed - the street is about 1 kilometre long and on the way you have restaurants, shops, a massage, fruit vendors and a lot of locals. They have a school and you can see the local's everyday life. I liked it beacause there weren't a lot of people there. It was peaceful and the locals weren't bothered by the tourists, they seemed like they enjoy their life - some also provide service to the tourists, but others just mind their own business and aren't bothered by foreigners. I spent there 4 days and did nothing special, but enjoyed so much ☺! And some people were really nice, I still remember one lady which was serving fruit shakes in which she added ginger on our request and it was very good. The food was realy good and they understood English well enough to communicate. Our biggest worries there were searching for a place to stay and searching for different options for kayak tour and transportation for leaving this magical place ☺! Luckily I bought a Lao Telecom sim card for 10.000 Kip with free internet and it was very useful and I was sattisfied with the service. They have wi-fi in most places, but the connection isn't the best. I loved the evenings there, watching the sunset from the bridge was magnificent, even better with a company of Lao dark beer ☺!!

3.2.2015 (Don Khon) RELAXING SOME MORE

In the morning we woke up early, of course we couldn't sleep long ☺. Mornings were really lovelly, so peaceful, I did my morning exercises in the restaurant overlooking the Mekong while others were still sleeping.

I decided to take a run and it was wonderful, I ran to the other side of the island to Khonpasoi Waterfalls and it was very nice. I ran about 40 minutes there and back and stopped at the waterfall and explored a little the surroudings through the bushes, trying to find good views of the waterfall. In the afternoon we explored the island some more with the bikes and we ended at the same waterfalls as I ran to ☺. We wanted to see the Li Phi waterfalls (Tat Somphamit), but we were a bit late there, so we decided to skip this and relax some more ☺.

4.2.2015 (Don Khon) LAO STYLE KAYAKING

In the morning we had breakfast included with kayaking, and it was very tasteful, eggs with vegetable and we ordered sticky rice with it - we just loved the sticky rice ☺. They took us over to Don Det where some had breakfast and Marija and I ordered one more sticky rice with mango which turned out to be a good choice as there was a long day ahead of us. They told us we will have English speaking guides, Marija asked twice and they assured her. But they forgot to tell us that they spoke only few word in English ☺! So actually we didn't learn much about the places we were visiting and it would be much nicer if we would be told about the places, but that is Laos style kayaking, I guess! There were 3 of us on one kayak, I think that it was one person too much, but at the time we went through rapids I was happy that one local was with us on the same kayak, because he knew how to go though them unharmed, so we didn't hurt ouselves, like one guy who hurt his toe nail. We visited one island to find nice waterfalls and had interesting walk, though we didn't know where we were ☺.

When we came to the border with Cambodia we stopped and for about an hour waited to see the Irrawaddy dolphines. Of course we didn't see them, the dolphines were more clever than we were to be there in the hot sun ☺! Although some guides said that they saw them, but I really don't think they did. But anyway it was interesting to be already a little bit in Cambodian teritory without the visa, I was admiring the country I was about to visit next. For lunch we went on the island of Don Sadan where they gave us some quick lunch, the best part of it was a lot of fruit - we were happy that we ate a lot before ☺! After that we kayaked some more and were actually quite tired as there was a lot of kayaking on this tour. And at the end they wanted us to lift our kayakes and bring them up to load them on trucks and Marija and I said this was really too much and brought them out of water, but not up, because they were to heavy for us. So we were already exhausted and they drove us to the big waterfalls and when we came there we forgot about everything and just enjoyed Khon Phapeng Waterfalls, the bigggest waterfalls in South - East Asia!

They just brought us enough power to kayak some more from the Nakasong pier to Don Det and luckily from there to Don Khon they drove us in a boat, because if we had to do more kayaking I think we would rather sleep on Don Det ☺! As we were driving in the boat and getting rehidratied with fresh water we were observing the scenery in the beautiful light that happens a little before the sunset and it was amazing! To get to our »home« we had to pass a crazy duck bathing in the washing up bowl.

Marija spent one more night there, but that was out last Lao night together after two and a half weeks of amazing Lao experiences. We have seen, done, ate, smelled, laughed and felt so much, that the last evening we weren't able to understand yet everything that had happened to us. But we were feeling very grateful that we had the chance to experience Laos together, as this way it was way more fun and easier than it would be on our own ☺!