Our final destination, the 4000 islands.
And what a beautiful place to end the SE Asia trip. The 4000 islands are situated within the Mekong river. At this point, it swells to almost 14km
wide in the wet season, and as the rains have such an enormous impact on the
river, the number of islands and the size of them, shrinks & grows with the
seasons.
Don Det is one of the smaller inhabited
islands. It has a real laid back feel to it - there is no mains electricity:
Fridges are plastic chests that are filled with blocks of ice daily, generators
run from 6-11 at night after which it is candlelight and torches.
We had a definite picture in our minds - a
bamboo hut on the river bank and two hammocks on the balcony. Unfortunately, as we arrived
quite late, we had very few accommodation options available to us. We ended up
with the last bungalow at a place named Paradise, on the Sunrise side of the island. We were greeted
by a real California style hippy named Lance,
who had been living at the Paradise bungalows
for 3 months. He even brought a guitar to breakfast and had a plaited grey
beard. Our bungalow at Paradise was pretty
lousy even by my new low standards: no river view, only 1 (uncomfortable)
hammock and the perfect slot next to the noisy generator. We resolved to try
& move the following day - not only
was the hut a bit crap, but the people were all terribly pleased with
themselves, and trying VERY hard to be proper travellers, with a fair amount of
sanctimony thrown in.
On the plus side, I did get to tick off one
fairly bizarre thing off my wish list: a bucket shower. Which was great - an enormous
vat of cold water and a plastic saucepan. I loved it.
That evening we had a couple of beers round
the communal dinner table at Paradise, then
moved on to another bar after our kitchen closed. I had another of my Beer Lao
poisoning moments (oops) but we had good gossips and saw some absolutely
amazing stars.
The following day, we decided to go for a
bit of a stroll to see if we could spot somewhere else to stay. In classic
style, we ended up on a bit of a marathon walk and completed the circuit of the
island. We stopped for lunch by the bridge to the neighbouring island of Don Khon and had the most delicious coconut shake - Don
Det is renowned for the quality of the coconuts grown there, and the shakes
were heavenly.
We had a great day of exploring - stumbling across a family of water buffalo,
leading some other tourists down the wrong path (they thought we looked like we
knew where we were going - HA), and seeing the way the Mekong changes the
direction of its flow as it meanders around the islands. As we completed our
circuit, we found ourselves on the Sunset side and spotted some nice looking
bungalows. By a stroke of luck, one was free, so we bagged it and dashed back
to Paradise to collect our bags.
We made it to our new hut in time for sunset
- cracked open a couple of beers and sat in our hammocks. Bliss.
The following day, apathy set in - we
managed to have a day of not really stirring very far from our hammocks,
playing cards & writing Ollie’s life plan (nothing major then!). That
evening we summoned up the energy to be a little more sociable and joined in a
card game with some of the other guests at the bungalows - a couple of guys
from Yorkshire and two from Australia.
The following morning we had a trip booked.
First up, a visit to see the rare Irrawaddy Dolphins that congregate in the Mekong during the dry season. We managed to see the
dolphins - apparently they’ll bring us luck, which is good news.
It was a bit of a different matter trying
to take photos of them though - I managed to get about 40 pictures of the
water, with a few greyish shapes that COULD, conceivably be a dolphin. Oh well,
I know I saw them.
We then went onto the ’Big Waterfall’ - the
Pha Peng falls. These falls are created when the Mekong
goes from being 14km wide to being about 100 metres wide, so the force of the
water is huge. These falls also mark the border with Cambodia - strange to be so close
to the country we loved so much. The falls were absolutely stunning - they must
be truly spectacular during the rainy season.
After the falls, we had to go on a bank run
- as there’s no electricity on Don Det, there are no ATMs and we’d
miscalculated how much money we’d need. Oops.
After such a strenuous morning, we awarded
ourselves the afternoon off, and sat in our hammocks playing Uno and eating
Pringles and nuts. Nutritious. That evening, we had a big night with the guys
from the bungalows, but for some reason I was annoyingly sober, so didn’t have quite
as good a time as the others J
The following day was to be our last on the
islands. We decided to hire some bikes and cycle over to Don Khon. I’m not the
world’s greatest cyclist - I’d been a bit put off after falling off a bike into
a rose bush at the age of 16, but this trip is all about trying new things, and
I managed ok - we actually cycled a long way - over to the ‘Small waterfall’ of
Li Phi, then onto the beach - absolutely baking hot sands due to the metal
deposits of fools gold. We had a quick swim in the Mekong
(tick) and continued our journey. We made it to the far side of Don Khon which
rewarded us with a beautiful view of hundreds of islands, island life and the
hills of Cambodia.
Absolutely beautiful.
We spent our last evening with Sam from the bungalows, in the Reggae bar
drinking Beer Lao and the revolting Lao-Lao rice whisky. The evening culminated
with heading down to the beach where fires were lit. Lovely,
Next morning, we left Don Det at 11am,
ready for our 19 hour journey back to Bangkok
