The Island Life
Trip Start
Jun 05, 2007
1
69
82
Trip End
Jan 06, 2009
Don Det,
Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
We arrived on this tiny little island after a very long night of whiskey drinking and poker with our week long friends we had been travelling with since Luang Phrabang. It was Pepyn's birthday, he wanted whiskey, you know how it goes. Suprisingly when we woke to get on the boat, the hangover was not there. The boat ride was easy, a few hours, good company, and a nice breeze. The river was very high, so the current carried us quickly.
Once on the island, we found Paradise, and hung around in our hammocks in front of our riverside bungalows
Now, that was a cannon ball
. Beer, a spliff, and the day was ready to begin. We walked the island that day, all the way around. We did not realize just how big it was, even though it is quite small. Took us a few hours to get around though. The normal for Laos, lots of buffalo giving you the stare down, farmers saying "Sah Bah Dee" every few minutes in greeting, rice paddies, and more rice paddies. Oh, and lots of flood waters. As we came to find out, the Mekong is at its highest its been in a long while. The way back Pepyn, Natasha, Amanda, and I were walking through knee high luke warm still water, the bottom of which was deep mud. Very nice.We got back and found Curtis still swinging and reading in front of the bungalows. It was the kind of place to let a few days slip by without noticing. Which, is exactly what we did the next day. Sometime after that we went to visit the giant waterfalls of the Mekong down on the island just south, connected by a bridge, Don Khon. Basically the entire Mekong drops 50 meters over around 500 meters of distance. It is very difficult to imagine the sight of that much water rushing on by. The best I can do is to tell you the sound of it alone, is deafening. The water patterns themselves make very little sense, there are so many little back currents and everything it just is maddening. I wish I could explain it better, but madness seems apporopriate. To offer a bit more, 4 kayakers tried to take the rapid, only two of the men made it, and none of the boats did
MOO
. The bridge that connects the two islands is really nice spot as well. The Mekong is just rushing past below you at amazing speed, just upriver of the "waterfall". It is a really peaceful spot in between the two islands. We spent most of that day just biking all over the place, playing frisbee, found a good beach with sand and everything, that the Mekong had not taken yet and had a swim. Drank fresh coconuts, had lunch and beer, considered a trip to go see the pink dolphins, and rode down a very long, very rocky road without a puncture in any of the 10 tires we had with us. As most days on the island, we finished this one with a late afternoon dip at the Sunset Bar, and then a trip over to the Reggae Bar for a spliff and a few beers. Here we parted with our friends whom had been with us for over two weeks at this point, and I must say that this was a sorrowful parting, for we had really gotten along, but alas, that is all part of travelling. The day they left though, I missed them. And it was that fresh missing someone, unlike missing someone whom you havent seen in nearly two years (i.e. everyone else in my life). Amanda and I spent a few more days on the island, just relaxing and getting ourselves ready for Cambodia, and life on the road again. We went to the other waterfall, which has a suspension bridge over it, and is a bit more narrow. More Madness. But mostly we just hung in our hammocks, visited the bakery once a day, and saved our cash.
This was a hard place to leave, even more so because we still had some time on our visa, and knew we were off to Cambodia which we had heard was a real hassle to travel in. And Laos was so easy and delightful. But your not traveling if your just sittin still, so on we went.
