Laos: South, Don Det 19-22 May

Today it was crossing the border to Laos, exciting! It’s really easy to get the minvan from Ban Lung to Laos. It cost $16 and takes around three hours to get to Stung Treng right on the border, leaving at 7.30am and getting there at around 11am. There you have to wait for the next minvan to take you across the border, the whole trip to Don Det in Laos is included in the ticket price, you don’t need to book further transport at the border.

Stung Treng is set right on the banks of the huge Mekong River and is an alright place to kill two hours, there’s also an ATM here if you need USD for the visa at the border. (The cash machines in Cambodia spit out USD, it’s only when you get change from shops that you get Riels). The next minivan we got was pretty fun too, it was packed to the rafters right up until the one row of seats before the drivers seat, where there was space for two people but we had to squish in four. The driver sat in his seat, and in the other front seat Stu and monk practically sitting on each other’s laps which was hilariously cute. Amongst us were all the bags, luggage, boxes, sacks. The drive was only another two hours so not bad at all.

The Laos / Cambodian border is just a collection of little shack shops selling colourful snacks and fried animals on sticks, and the border post was nothing more than a tiny crumbling building with some guards, waiting to stamp your Cambodian exit form and collect $2 ‘for the stamp’. You then walk about 30m to the next tiny little broken up building, where the immigration officials hide behind a tiny blacked out window, so you have to stoop really low to hear them and to see a glimpse of a hand come through to take your passport. The visa here cost $36, and is issued for one month. A French lady we were on the bus with said that a person she met managed to get a two week one for $2, but we all tried to ask for that but they said that didn’t exist. The next window you also had to pay $2 ‘for the stamp’, which Stu flat out refused to and they said he had to go back to Cambodia. Eventually he met them half way and paid $1, but he wasn’t happy about it. Haha.

Laos border - Stu's pic

The currency in Laos is Riel. 8000 Riel is $1 USD, and you don’t get USD from the ATM’s although it’s accepted everywhere. It’s meant to be the cheapest country out of Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam but I’m pretty sure it’s on par with Cambodia and maybe even Northern Thailand when it comes to things like food in restaurants.

If Cambodia seemed poorer directly after the border from Vietnam, then Laos seemed poorer still. The houses and business lining the main streets are merely very simple wooden boxes on stilts, with a platform halfway down underneath the house raised up from the ground where the families would sit and eat, protected from the sun. You could see straight into all the houses as you rode by on the big bus. There were children running from house to house, teenagers playing volleyball (actually a really popular pastime in SE Asia it seemed, everywhere you went there were groups of boys playing over a rickety net). I could see big sheets of plastic, twice the size of a double bed, spread out on the ground in the sun absolutely covered in red chillies, whether these were for the families personal use or to sell I couldn’t tell as everyone seemed to have them. In under an hour we were at a small town on the river that was the push off point for the 4000 Islands. They must have been used to tourists because the streets were lined with people selling sunglasses, hats, and snacks, although now it was low season and there weren’t many tourists at all. It was scorching hot when we got out the van and walked up the road to the ferry where the traditional Laos long thin ferry boats were waiting to take about six of us to Don Det. The whole journey from Ban Lung to Don Det only took around eight hours and so it’s a good first stop in Laos, especially if you are coming from somewhere further south in Cambodia like Siem Riep.

Don Det is the main place to go in the 4000 Islands, and is known for being a super chilled out and slightly more underground traveller’s Mecca. You can add something ‘happy’ to pretty much anything... cakes, shakes, pizzas. It has cheap bungalows and is set on the awesomely beautiful Mekong river with stunning sunset views, surrounded by the ‘4000 islands’ which are little jungly tufts floating on the great Mekong. It’s not very big, and if you want something even more laid back you can go to it’s sister island, separated by a small bridge, Don Khong. This is the slightly more ‘grown up’ island, with less happy in the food and drinks.

We arrived on Don Det at sunset, on the tiny beach that served as the drop off point for boats. It was baking hot and so we just sat down at the first place on the beach for something to drink, before going on a mission to find a hut. I wanted to find somewhere really nice where I could properly relax, so we walked for quite a while first on the east side of the island where you could see the sunrise, and then on the west side on ‘Sunset Boulevard’ where all the best sunset view bungalows were. Sunset was in full swing by the time and we found a place with five really cute bungalows with balcony’s and a hammock, in perfect view of the beautiful sunset. They were 30k Kip each with a shared bathroom set just behind them, so just under $4. Stu and I got a bungalow each side by side, and heaved a big happy sigh.

Bungalow on the Mekong

Don Det was really quiet with hardly anyone around because of low season, which was perfect because I can imagine it can get quite packed and annoying in high season. You could hire a bike and ride around the island and to Don Khong, which had a great big powerful waterfall on the Mekong with a hot, grey sanded beach, a dolphin watching point (there are still supposed to be Irrawaddy dolphins in the Mekong here, near the Cambodia/Laos border). It was deadly quiet on Don Khong and a really cool place to cycle, totally flat with just some locals having their low season break from the tourists. I spent one night in my toilet-less bungalow and then found a great little place just a little walk away with my own bathroom for 40k Kip, only $5 and way more comfortable, with a real bed and everything. It’s called Sengthavan Guesthouse and I highly recommend it, clean comfy room with proper bathroom and hot shower, and a restaurant opposite with the really lovely family running it, delicious food and super friendly.  On the deck of the restaurant you could lie on mats and cushions on the floor, and where you could watch honestly some of the most staggering sunsets I’ve ever seen. It did rain occasionally, for sure, but it was nice when it did for a couple of hours in the afternoon to clear the heat and air. The rest of the time it was baking hot.

Drop off beach, Don Det

The Mekong

Sengthaven Guesthouse and restaurant

Sunset!

More amazing sunset

I met some fun people there too. Josh who we met in Ban Lung was there, a off the wall English girl who was animatedly talking about how huge and orange my aura was, a really cute South African couple and just some friendly nice people relaxing and playing music. As with most places in SE Asia, the family lived in the business. So all the guesthouses, shops, restaurants had the family around so the island had a nice feeling of not just being one side for tourists and then the locals another, everyone was just mixed in with chickens, children, pigs and bungalows.

One day we hired tubes and tried to float down the Mekong on either side of the island, but the current was so strong it dragged us too quickly down towards the waterfall and made really difficult to swim back. There are signs everywhere warning of the currents, but people take tubes out daily and float speedily towards the powerful waterfall, and I have no idea of their fate. A group of people I met told me to meet them under a huge tree a bit down the river one day and said just to swim there, so I just hopped in the warm Mekong water and realised that the short swim to the other bank would be pretty treacherous, and I couldn’t swim against the current. Some people floated towards me on tubes and gave me a ‘lift’ to the opposite bank, but I had to really swim and use all my power to get there. I finally managed to grab the roots of the tree and climb up, but I was pretty exhausted and I’m quite a strong swimmer, so I have no idea how someone would do after a few beers or something ‘happy’. Be careful! When we were ready to leave, we all tried to swim across the river to the other side but ended up much further down that we intended, and that was swimming with all our strength against the current.

Don Khong waterfall - Stu's pic

Don Khong island - Stu's pic

We stayed on Don Det for three nights but it could easily been more, if being horizontally laid back and watching sunsets and drinking fruit fresh fruit shakes and swimming without a care in the world is your thing. But there was much to see. I was heading to Vang Vieng next and Stu to Pakse. I needed a bit of serious party time while he couldn’t think of anything worse! To get to there from Don Det was a bit expensive when booked through an agent, $30 and included the boat back to main land, a three hour bus to Pakse which arrived at 3pm, and then at 8pm a ten hour sleeper night bus to Vang Vieng. On the minibus to Pakse when we stopped, women would run up to the van and stick whole grilled flattened chickens on sticks and grasshoppers deep fried on sticks through the windows to sell.

Pakse is known for being a base to hire a motorbike to ride the amazing three day Baloven Plateau loop. I was glad to stop there for a few hours to look around and to see Stu off, it seemed like a cool town with more adventurer type travellers there. It seemed a little expensive though, one of the cheapest places to stay had dorms for $5 and up. This Lonely Planet recommended place that Stu ended up staying in, Sabaidy 2 Guesthouse, definitely had that stuck up recommended by Lonely Planet vibe, not friendly at all and charging for showers and even extra for wifi which was unusual, although they said the money went to charity. I was really jealous of all the well worn, happy adventurer travellers that we bumped into that had already been on the Baloven Plateau loop, and I was very nearly ready to change my ticket and stay to do it. But I had to think of money and the fact that I couldn’t do it all, as much as I wanted to. But it was a good thing because after I left Stu told me that he set off on a motorbike the next day, but it was so rainy and misty that he couldn’t see a thing, and one of the bridges had washed away so he couldn’t get anywhere and had to come back to Pakse having not seen a thing anyway, which was a real shame.

I was really nervous about my ‘VIP’ night bus ride to Vang Vieng, as I had heard some accounts of girls having horrible experiences with Loatian men working on the buses trying to snuggle up next to them. I thought I was the only westerner on the bus, which had massive individual beds for everyone and was really empty. But then I met Beren, from Australia, a really nice guy who took the bed next to me to ward off any potential toucher’s. We had a good chat on the empty bus, and the beds were really big and comfortable too with blankets and pillows. I needed a good rest knowing what was waiting for me in Vang Vieng, adventure crazy town!

Here are the Laos pics.