September 26th - 28th
Don Det is part of the 4000 Islands in southern Laos, a region so-called because many islands and sand banks spring out of the Mekong, the numbers varying depending on the rainfall. We arrived there after a two and a half hour bus from Pakse and a short ride in a motorised canoe. The three days we spent there were wonderful; not only because the island itself seems detached from time and invites you to just lounge about in hammocks, but because we met a great group of people there.
Conditions are pretty basic on Don Det (wooden huts, concrete-floored bathrooms usually detached from your hut by some muddy path, electricy only from generators which are turned on sparingly and no electricity whatsoever after 10pm, cold water etc.) but if you don't mind a bit of dirt between your toes, you can allow your blood pressure to reach its all-time minimum.
In short, we spent our days drinking quite a large amount of Lao whisky, eating great food (favourites being Lao pancakes, sticky rice with some amazing chilli sauce, chicken Lap) and playing games. We had a hut on the "Sunset Strip" where our drinking friends became a guy from Texas who has been travelling for two years and doesn't know when he's finishing (how great is that!), a couple of German medic students, an Australian ex-professional musician, a guy from Colorado with a great little backpackers' guitar and a girl from Northern Ireland. During our first night drinking together, new names were created for each person originating from the names of our first pets so we thereafter referred to each other as "Ashes", "Kick", "Daisy", "Rasher", "Snoopy" and "Thumper". That first night also found me stumbling back from the bathroom in pitch darkness after dropping Robbie's, or, correctly said, Rasher's torch, and losing a flip flop whilst climbing the wooden steps to our hut which stood on stilts. I think my clumsiness may have been too much for Rasher who took to sleeping on the veranda that night.
It may not only be the lack of cars, electricity and people which make Don Det a very relaxing place. As we found out, "happiness" is also consumed: if the food on the menu has "happy" in front of it (like "happy pizza", "happy pancake") it means that it will contain a little bit of marijuana to see you on your happy way. At just over $1 a bottle for Lao whisky, however, our "happy" needs were fulfilled otherwise.
I did leave the restaurants and bars a couple of times, once to cycle around Don Det and once to cycle over to the neighbouring island of Don Khon. These were great trips taking in waterfalls, buffalos, rice fields and the daily life of the islanders. I didn't want to shock my body with unnecessary exersion too much though, so made sure each trip was rewarded with a beer and the comfort of getting stuck into another game of "Catan" or "Yarnef".
Whilst it was low season and there were few people around, we were certainly not alone on the island. One morning I showered with a bat looking down at me and each trip to the toilet was accompanied by pig grunts. The first time I heard a grunt I actually thought it was a traveller with a bad stomach behind the partition wall but I soon realised that the toilet shack was in front of a pigsty. I didn't sleep well any night due to the combined sounds of crickets, pigs and incredible performances by roosters in the early hours of each morning. Perhaps the fear of a buffalo sticking its head through the window also contributed in keeping me awake at night.
Strangely, despite the lack of sleep, I didn't feel tired on Don Det (perhaps because I wasn't actually using any energy apart from to digest or perhaps because the Lao mojitos kept me going). On our last night we decided to go for a drink in costume to kind of compensate the fact that Rasher has been carrying his Lederhosen around with him everywhere and not getting much use out of them. I therefore found myself dressed in banana leaves leaving our hut with Rasher in Lederhosen and Ashes in a Playbunny robe. Unfortunately we were unable to convince the others to partake so we did stand out a little at Sunset Bar that night.
The most energy I used on Don Det was actually packing my stuff to leave. I could have stayed longer but the group was breaking up, each person with their own travel itinery to follow, and Cambodia was also waiting for Rasher and I. It was sad to leave but I guess that's the reality with travelling: you have to leave the places, the good and the bad, and hope that just as good times are waiting to be had elsewhere. Rasher and Thumper are back on the road in search of the next adventure.
