Alice in Laos Laos Land

Trip Start Nov 15, 2008
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Trip End Feb 28, 2009


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Where I stayed
Mr B's
(Dondet hotels)

Flag of Lao Peoples Dem Rep  ,
Sunday, December 14, 2008

We arrived in Laos after a 7 hour bus journey (should have been 5) from Phnom Penh to Kratie (said kratchaey). We stayed over night in Kratie, where you're supposed to go and see the Irawaddy dolphins, but we only had one afternoon there so we just walked around and watched a glorious sunset over our first sight of the Mekong and tried to shake off our bone crunching bus journey. The next day we were up at 730 and on another bus, this time we had paid 15 dollars (it's all dollars in Cambodia, except when they give you your change) for an air conditioned mini bus which turned out to only have one other person in it. So us and a guy called Michael from Huddersfield (without the accent but with a penchant for travelling to extreme places, he came to Asia via Norway then Russia, China, etc, although I did trump him with Africa - ha ha) set off in this mini bus all to ourselves and all the way to Stung Treng (a frontier town with little to offer except extortionate prices - amazing how $3 can seem ridiculous for noodles and veg when you're out here) only to find ourselves ousted from the mini van with what turned out to be a 2 and a half hour wait before our next mini bus turned up, which was actually a kind of old pick-up truck. We moaned and bitched for a bit and then got on and met Zoe and Tom from Bristol and had this bumpy, trail blazing journey across the last of Cambodia while getting to know the rest of our new English tribe. We felt like illegal imigrants, well posh ones, sneaking into Laos.

When we got through the borders (2 dollars for the Khmer boarder guards and 3 for the Laos guards, after paying $45 for our visa, thank you very much) we had to wait again for a new mini bus which took us to shore of the Mekong islands where a long boat took us on the last 5 minutes of our journey, while the sun set in front of us over Laos' Four Thousand Islands.

Our first day was a lazy day with our little English tribe (yep, no Welsh Mark) playing what Tom has named Ticker which is this litlle plastic thing with rings on top of one another and feather so that you can kick and hit it between you in a circle, and it falls slowly and bounces high. People play it all over Cambodia in the streets and you can join in anytime, the locals always want you to join in, but they are brilliant at it. Dinner last night consisted of a Happy Shake made of coconut and lots of happiness. You can guess the rest.

Today we cycled out to Don Khone which has a gorgeous sandy beach leading down to the river and more Ticker, oh and also some rapids called Liphi Falls. They were ok but I couldn't quite wake up this morning for some reason. Happy days.

xx
I was in Don Det about 4 or 5 days altogether and although we didn't do much, we still managed to visit the biggest "waterfall" (it's not a waterfall it's rapids. Ok.) in South East Asia, unfortunately when I got my camera out I realised I'd left the battery in the charger. So no photos, but you can imagine. A lot of water going over rocks. Done. Then we went on a long tail into Cambodian waters to see Dolphins and we spotted a few fins and about one came up close. Still it was a little adventure to add to our days of doing not much else. And the Mekong is really beautiful, as are the islands, I wonder if there really are 4000, has anyone counted? 
One of the best restaurants on Don Det is called Paradise, they have bungalows too and he food is fantastic. Bizarrely, pumpkin burgers are the big thing on the island and they were delicious. They don't use as much chilli in the food in Laos and Cambodia, but it's still good. Good fruit shakes, good noodles and good curries with sticky rice. Mmmmmmm. A beautiful family run Paradise and they don't bother hiking the prices up. They're doing ok and they really attract a great crowd of people. Recommended. As Mr Footprint would say.
Wish I could see more of Laos. I'll have to come back before the Japenese find out about it. Ssssh, don't tell.
xx
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