Hi All,
To reach Laos, we headed through rural Cambodia by minibus. This dry, barren landscape with the occasional wooden stilt house was a huge contrast to the more developed cities we had seen in other parts of the country. Reaching the land border, we again felt like we had arrived at a deserted military site. We received our Cambodian departure stamps before walking 500 meters through no-mans land to reach Lao immigration. Here we purchased our visas before piling onto the back of a cattle truck then boarding the ‘ferry’ (an unstable long tail boat) that took us to our first stop in southern Laos - Si Phan Don. This name translates directly as ‘Four Thousand Islands’ which accounts for each sandbar and bush in this 14km wide river; the widest point in the Mekong River on its whole 4350km journey through 6 countries from its source in Tibet.
We stayed on Don Det Island; one of the larger of the four thousand islands but still only 3km long and 1.5km wide. This sleepy, rural island has an really chilled vibe. The shores of the island are lined with rustic wooden bungalows on stilts, each with hammocks hung out front. Similarly, the few restaurants have more cushioned floor seating than tables and chairs. A few days of recuperation was just what we needed as Danielle had come down with a cold and Ross got it worse with a 24 hour sickness bug.
If you could measure a place on its sunset alone, here would score a solid 10 out of 10. Every evening, a bright pink and orange sun illuminated the sky and reflected beautifully in the water. Our ‘bungalow’ was far from a 10/ 10 rating through. We were joined by a toad on the first night as despite chasing it round the room for 15 minutes we couldn’t catch it to get it out. The rest of the Mekong wildlife decided to join us too: moths, mosquitoes, ants and geckos. Neither of us were phased by these though, the bigger problem was the rock solid pillows and spiky spring beds that we had to sleep on. At least we had hammocks to spend our afternoons chilling in!
We decided to rent push bikes to visit the neighbouring island of Don Khon. The waters off the southern coast are home to the rare Irrawaddy River Dolphins. It was amazing to spot these on a short boat trip down the Mekong River; the same river that we spent three days on at the beginning of the month on our journey into Cambodia! This species is critically endangered and there are only 92 of these dolphins left in the Mekong so we felt very privileged to see them, even if it was from afar (hence the poor photos). While on the boat, we were going to visit a waterfall as well, however Ross wasn’t feeling great so we headed back to shore. No sooner than we were on dry land, he proceeded to be violently sick. Consequently, our 8km bike ride home was a leisurely one, stopping several times so Ross could have a lie down. After playing nurse, Danielle left Ross sleeping and biked to Li Phi Falls waterfall instead. The incredibly powerful water roared over the rocks before meandering back into a calm flow.
We are going to be making our way up Laos over the next couple of weeks as we head towards the capital of Vientiane where we are excited to be joined by Beth (Ross’ sister) at the beginning of February. Hope you are all well at home, drop us an email to let us know what you’ve been up to.
Love R and D xxx
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