Dong Det (4 thousand islands)

  Dong Det, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Monday, May 28, 2007

Well  I met up with Mini and the Piltown gang in Vang Vieng. They were there a few days ahead of me so they had all the tubing and fun already done and dusted.

We were all heading down to The Four Thousand Islands so we decided to kayak down to Vientiane and from there get an overnight bus to Pakxe and finally another bus to Dong Det.

17. The whole gang

I have to say I was under whelmed by the the four thousand islands. Although the area is beautiful to look at I was expecting more. Of course the fact that my small bag got robbed by some dodgy minibus driver, I've no proof but I know it was that little bollix, probably didn't help in my impression of the area. Luckily though there was nothing of monetary value in the bag, just some books and bits and pieces that I've been collecting since starting my travels. That was the most annoying thing to have lost as I was going to put them into a scrap book when I got back. Bastard!!!!!

Anyway now thats out of the system,  we met up with 3 Canadian girls that the guys had met in Vang Vieng and we arrived in Dong Det. This is a small island, that only has electricity from 6.30pm to 9.30pm. We stayed in some huts, they were nothing special but enough for us to get a sleep in. And it was run by a very crafty elderly Laos lady. She was a bit of a dragon and their food sucked but there was a lovely restaurant nearby so it wasn't too much of an issue.

We spent two or three days here. The first day involved a boat trip off to see the rare fresh water Irrawaddy dolphins. These guys were close to extinct but are making a bit of a comeback in Laos due to a government funded program to teach the local fishermen about how and where to put their nets. The dolphins are worshiped by the Laos as they believe them to be some sort of decedent of some god or another. Anyway our dolphin spotting consisting of sitting on a rock in the middle of the river for 20 minutes or so and off in the distance we would see what could have been anything popping out of the water every so often. We were told it was the dolphins but who knows. After that we were taking to one of the biggest waterfalls in Laos if not SE Asia.

15. Me

It not the height of the waterfall but the volume of water that is passing through it. Its absolutely huge and really impressive. The next day we hired a few bikes and went for a wander around. We cycled along some muddy paths to a Wat Temple. This was followed by trip to another waterfall. All the way along the local farmers were ploughing the fields getting them ready for harvesting rice. I'm sure the pics will remind some of the older folks back home of the good old days with the horse and single plough. The only difference here is they used water buffalo.

35. Local woman ploughing the field

At the end of the day Minis buddies and the Canadian girls headed off back to Pakxe in order to catch a flight to Cambodia. Meself and Mini continued our trip to another island for one night before heading back to Bangkok and up to Chang Mai. I was kinda glad to get out of here and move on.

Although Laos was really beautiful and I absolutley loved Northern Laos, Southern Loas left a sour taste in my mouth. And I wasn't the only one to have trouble. While in Bangkok I met a dutch guy who was on the islands with us. He told me that since I last saw him he had fainted 4 or 5 times so was booking a flight home to Amsterdam to get checked out. However after he got off the islands and was waiting for a bus he passed out again. He had a vague memory of being carried under some trees by a few locals. When he woke up ALL his bags were gone. He went in search and saw a kid with a spray can that belonged to him. He nabbed the kid and made him take him to the rest of his stuff.

40. Saying goodbye to Canadian and Piltown crew

He got to the kids home where his parents had all his stuff taking out of the bags and were sorting through it on the table. He just marched in there and started shouting and repacked. Luckily for him he got everything back and even more lucky was spotting the kid.

Anyway I was heading to better places hopefully and looking forward to it.