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4000 Islands in the Mekong
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Local buses are fun - today our bus was jam packed with little red seats (and people) in the isle. There no rule that says you can't smoke so guys reguarly light up and there's no aircon, but on this ride the locals decided that open windows were bad. We went further south in a truck to the port where you are dropped opposite Don Det and have to bargain for the price of your boat ticket. The Si Phan Don Islands are actually in the monstrous Mekong (this river runs through about 6 countries and I think it starts in poor ole Tibet) and during rainy season some of the smaller ones actually disapear. The Island is a lot bigger than we thought and all of the accomodation is very cheap. We got ourselves our own private bungalow with 2 hammocks out front, on the river with a little furniture on our veranda for around $2. There are actually dozens and dozens of guesthouses on the sunrise side as we found out while taking a leisurely stroll after a swim in the Mekong. Laos is incredibly humid and if you don't swim or bathe 2-3 times a day - well then you're just plain disgusting. Each day we would wander around the Island looking at the farm animals everywhere. Our journeys took us to: a giant,fat pig who'd just given birth that morning to cute little piglets; to several monkeys one of which Ben adopted for the duration of our stay; buffalo wallowing in puddles in the rice paddies and some being used for ploughing. The Island is a must do and it's pretty and relaxing and a lot of people come here to buy weed and smoke it out on the veranda of their guesthouse. We think a lot of guesthouses provide it so people will eat more.
We hired the crappiest bikes ever and rode South taking a bridge which was a railway line the French built, over to Don Khone. Our ride on the old Historic Railway Line was eventful. The road to the other side of the Island was made of rocks which jolted us sensless as well as threatened to pop a tyre and the ride was around 5 km in the heat of the day. We rode over to see if we could see dolphins from the other side and on the way back we decided to try another route. Smooth and great until we came to a small ravine (just a couple of metres high) with a railway track ploncked on top to get across. Ben valiantly took our bikes across while I had to work up the courage to step onto each rung to get across. We encountered another one a few minutes later and then the path ended at a small hut. We tried to communicate with the people who lived there, even showing them a simple map of the paths on the Islands, but they kept motioning to go back around the way we came. Shit! It was hot and we were sweaty and now we had to cross over the tracks again. I could barely get my bike up a steep and narrow part by lifting it as my peddles and handle bars kept getting stuck and I was getting very frustrated. We didn't even have anything to show at the end of the bone rattling journey except mild sunstroke. We walked back with an umbrella the next day to see the famous dolphins.
From Don Khone you take a boat to go the short distance to the Cambodian shore to watch the endangered Irradaway Dolphin. They're endagered for a couple of reasons - during the reign of terror by the Khmer Rouge they were slaughtered in high numbers as the local people believed they were reincarnated people. So to squash their beliefs the Khmer Rouge slaughtered the dolphins. Now they're protected probably not for environmental reasons, my theory is that they bring the almighty tourist money to the area so it's better to keep them alive. Cambodian fisherman fish with grenades and blow some up. Laos fisherman sometimes get them caught in their nets, but don't want to cut them out as this would ruin their nets and they're too poor to fix them. The weird thing about these dolphins is that they are freshies (freshwater). Pretty uneventful - we saw lots of fins and heard lots of breathing, but in the end we sat and had some Cambodian beer and left 30 mins later. Good to know there's still some of these blue rarities alive though.
Each night we would go over to the Sunset side to watch the sunset, have some beer and food and meet people who were there every night too. The Island runs on generator and most places shut off around 9 or 10pm so each night we'd fumble our way home hoping not to step in pig or duck poo along the way. People would get stuck here and not leave. We spent a while on Don Det as we were killing time, but 5 gorgeous sunsets later we decided to check out another Island in the chain. We took a boat ride North to Done Kong, the biggest Island in the chain and it has electricity. Not much to report. Quite boring really and don't recommend it. Got a bike and rode around in a couple of hours, didn't see anything new and spent the rest of our day and night there hoping it would speed by so we could leave. They do sell packets of 10 x 10mg valium for under $2 though!
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