Wandering the World: Don Det

Savannakhet was a big let down we are moving on to Tha Khet. Hopefully it will be much better. The bus ride was super slow with it stopping every few km to pick up people, scooters and even animals... there was a chicken. The seemingly disorganized bus ride and having to change vehicles numerous times undid the relaxed feeling I had in Don Det. Lets hope the next day of travel goes a little more smoothly. Sorry I didn't really take any photos the past few days.

Nov 26 – Hanging in Don Det

Today was to be a quiet day. We went for breakfast then headed more into town to find some internet. We hung out at a nice riverside restaurant for the bulk of the day. We ran into Gregory breifly while there before he and the girl hopped on a boat to the main land. Mostly we just spent the day catching up on computer stuff and relaxing. It was nice. We tried to go to go watch the sunset at one restaurant but we got there a little late and the menu was quite overpriced. We went to the reggae bar for some beers but it was kind of pathetic as far as reggae bars go. There was no reggae music playing actually there was no music playing period. We moved on to find another restaurant for dinner and then head for an early bed. It was nice to have a quiet do nothing catch up day. We did buy a bus ticket today to go to Savannahket tomorrow, suposed to be a kind of pretty and romantic although a little run down.

Nov 27 – To Savannahket

We've been eating at the wrong places the past few nights. The restaurant attached to our guesthouse, which I hadn't really noticed before, had super cheap food. We ate here for breakfast which was a little cheaper than elsewhere but we could have had dinner last night for half the price. Boooo ahhh well you win some you lose some. We waited at the south west ferry terminal for our boat pick up around 11am. We were the only ones waiting there and were a little nervous about the fast but fortunately a boat showed up to take us to the main land. We had our own private boat although we were without shade on it. From the boat we caught a maxi bus to Pakse. This bus was bigger than a mini bus (a 15 seater van) and smaller than a coach bus (a greyhound). It also lacked air-conditioning but the windows opened and the bags were on the roof. From Pakse we transfered to a bus to Savannahkhet. This bus took a long time to get anywhere. We stoped every 500m for the first 10 km picking up passaengers including 3 motorbikes and a chicken. I don't understand why these people could go to the bus station to be picked up! Honestly! So it took forever to go 200km. We were told we`d arrive around 7pm and arrived at 9:30pm. We were dropped off outside of Savannahkhet and directed towards a jumbo, a pickup truck with benches in the back. The jumbo took us about 300m to another van. We were talking with a Lao girl, around my age, trying to figure out where we were. We found out we were dropped 35km outside of the city center. We were supposed to take the van into town but no one really indicated this to us but fortunately the Lao girl helped us figure this out. We were operating off the Lonely Planet and Rough Guides book and asked to be taken to a guesthouse which turned out to be closed. We were driven to another which was good enough for 9:30pm so we checked in. We then went in search of dinner and got some chicken noddle soup for $1. After this we went back to the hotel and for once turned on the tv. Low and behold there was a movie on so we watched Couple's Retreat before going to bed.

Don Det has been a great place to recharge for a couple of days. The quiet island life is exactly what we needed after cramped mini buses and long rides. So far life in Laos runs at a much more sedate pace we'll have to see if this just island life or if it's like this everywhere. It would be a nice change from the rest of the hullabaloo that is Asia.

Nov 24 – To Laos

Today we head to Laos. Our minibus picked us up from our hotel at 7am. We were one of the first stops since there was only 1 girl on the bus. As usual we picked up people till the mini bus was full and then some. The problem with mini buses is there is no room for luggage storage. They fill every seat but leave no space for bags. By the end of the pick ups there were 13 of us in a 13 seater mini bus but not everyone had a proper seat. The back seat, which sits 4 had 2 people plus bags, our row which sits 3 had 4 people with Beau sitting on a cushion in between seats, 3 in the row ahead (the older couple had paid extra for another seat but obviously they didn't get it), and 4 in the front with the driver sharing his seat. I think they need to learn about roof racks! It took about 2 hours to reach Strung Treng, we didn't actually go into the city just changed to a big bus to take us to the boarder. We were given visa papers to fill out and entrance/exit cards. We wanted to use our British passports to enter Laos, the visa was $11 cheaper than the Canadian, we were told we couldn't do it. It would be allowed. I think it would have been fine if we were doing the visas ourselves but a guy from the bus collected all the papers and passports and got our visas for us. We had to wait at the boarder while this happened thankfully under some shady tarps then walked across to a new bus which was to take us on to the ferry to Don Det. This ferry ride was infinity quieter than our last one, we didn't get stuck or anything. We arrived on Don Det and went in search of a room. Most places had very basic bungalows with a shared bathroom, we got one for 50,000kip ($6) with our own bathroom and shower. We walked around Don Det into the “town” which didn't take very long. The town is about 1km from our bungalow. We stopped for lunch and then headed back to the bungalow. We lazed about in hammock for the afternoon reading, napping and relaxing. Ahhh the island life. We went off in search of internet and dinner and found both. We ate at a nice little riverside restaurant and were able to use the internet. Most restaurants advertise free wifi since none of the guesthouses have it. So far Don Det seems like a nice little island.

Nov 25 – Don Det and Don Khon

We decided to rent some bicycles today to check out our island and the adjoining one, Don Khon, the two are connected by an old railway bridge. After breakfast we rented bikes from our guesthouse and set off to find an “ATM.” There aren't actually ATM's but you can take money out using your credit card with there credit card machines, we're just hoping this is seen as a sale not a cash advance. We were also thinking about doing a kayaking day trip but it cost abut $20 per person and upon further enquiry didn't sound that great. We biked along the western side of Don Det which was lovely. We stopped to talk to a guy (not sure where he was from Australia, NZ or South Africa) who was building tee-pee bungalows. He's trying to set up his own guest house. When we hit the bridge we ran into a few people who had been one our boat and bus from Strung Treng. The one girl was actually the girl who had been smushed on the mini bus with us, her name was Leah from Switzerland. The other two were Gregory and Loren from Belgium. We went to see Tat Somphamit, or Li Phi Falls, which were pretty nice. They were quite wide not all that high but there was quite the torrent of water flowing through. We walked along the path a ways and ended up in a sandy area where our new friends had gone swimming and met some Spanish dudes as well. It actually wasn't recommended swimming in this area so we headed off to another place with everyone else in tow. The beach was okay but the water was crisp and refreshing. The Mekong is pretty silty right now but we were told it was okay to swim. Beau had gone swimming and forgot he had money in his pocket so he had it all strewn over a bush to dry out. We ate lunch at the little beach side restaurant. The food was good but it was quite slow to get our meal, then again I don't think they normally have to prepare 8 dishes at one time. We headed back to Don Det and took the eastern route this time along the river. We had a little trouble with the bikes with chains falling off and getting stuck but we made it back okay. We had a quick shower then join Gregory, Loren and Leah at their bungalow to watch the sun set. After the sun had set, which was pretty spectacular, we headed to restaurant for some dinner, it also had a snooker table. I can't recall what my dinner was but it was very tasty and pretty spicy. Beau had some sort of Laos dish which pretty much burnt his face off, I think he liked it. Gregory and Beau played some snooker and the Spanish guys were coincidentally at the same place. After dinner and hanging out we headed down to another bar called Pai in Laos. They were open later then most other restaurants. There was a guy who put on a fire show, with a flaming baton and flaming balls on chains. It was pretty cool but a little scary too, you just had to hope he knew what he was doing. After all the excitement and exercise we were quite ready for bed so headed back to our bungalow. The stars are amazing here on the island with so little light pollution!