Into the wild

No, it really wasn't into the wild, they just didn't have internet service.  It's not quite the same thing, no matter what people tell you.

Looking at the Mekong - Don Khong

I took a sangthaew (basically rode in the back of a pickup) for a couple hours farther south of Champasak the next day, then caught a boat over to the island of Don Khong.  It's one of the many islands that comprise the area known as Si Phan Don (which means, literally, 4000 islands).  The islands are out in the Mekong river just north of the Cambodian border, where the river really spreads out and slows down.  It reminded me a little bit of the san juan islands up in washington, or the islands in the northern minnesota and wisconsin (except, of course, that it was a river & not a lake or an ocean, and the fact that there were banana trees and palm trees everywhere).

Some of the 4000 islands (little ones)

Don Khong is the biggest of the islands in the area - I'm going to take a wild guess and say about 15 miles around.  There's not a heck of a lot to do there other than bike around the island (or, if you're me, and you still haven't learned your lesson, walk around the island), eat, and sleep.  I liked it.

The most entertaining part of the stay on Don Khong was watching my guesthouse owner deal with the water buffalo.  They just sort of wander around town wherever they want - not really like pets (after all, they're going to be dinner), but more like residents of the town.  The last morning I was there I was eating breakfast on the balcony of my guesthouse, when a mother buffalo and her calf strolled down the street and walked in the front gate.  They then calmly began eating out of the garden that the guesthouse owner had been busy planting the day before.  I got the owner's attention and asked if that was really ok with him, at which point he ran down the stairs cursing in lao at the pair of buffalo, who quickly trotted back out the gate and down the street.  So I wouldn't call Don Khong 'the wild', but it's not exactly urban either....

Thunderhead over the Mekong