Our journey to the 4000 islands took the best part of a full day. We only had time to stay for 2 nights and we opted to stay on the popular island of Don Det. After finding some accomodation close to river we all had some nice chill out time. But as our first day was running out we knew we had to actually do something. So we went ... tubing! A completely different and more relaxed style compared to Vang Vieng. We all grabbed some beer Laos before we got dropped off up the river ... then sat back in our tubes and let the Mekong current drift us down back to our island. The next day we went on a day kayaking tour, this also involved visiting the biggest waterfall in south east asia, Khone Phapheng, and spotting the fresh water Irrawaddy dolphins. Kayaking down the Mekong was great fun, the current was fairly strong in some places and a few of us got stuck in some bushes along the river. After an hour or so we reached a small waterfall and chilled out for a bit before kayaking again until we reached and crossed the border with Cambodia. Here the river widened massively and must have been over a few Km's in width. This is where we got to spot the freshwater dolphins. The water wasnt exactly clear so we only caught sight of them when they surfaced for air. After lunch we set off kayaking again for another hour or so until we reached our tuk tuk that took us to Khone Phapheng. The waterfalls were impressive, helped by the fact we were in the rainy season. After the falls we were all exhausted and just wanted to go home but we had to kayak back to our island which was hard work. All in all a great day out! The 2nd night was our last night as a big group before we all left to go to different countries. We had a few cocktail buckets but didnt get too crazy, the night fizzled out with a little bonfire on the beach.
Laos was absolutley amazing, probably the best part of our trip so far but it was time to leave and the next day we set
off on a massive journey back to Bangkok then onwards to the islands in the south of Thailand!
