It was hard work making our way to get the bus out of Tad Lo, firstly because it's such a pretty, chilled-out place that doing anything energetic is an effort, and secondly because I'm now so old I can barely walk. Several people I used to call friends have made the point that I'm now closer to 35 than 30. That's just nasty, be it mathematically correct or not.
But make our way to the bus we did, because we've had one last stop on our road trip from the north to the south of Laos, and that has been at Si Phan Don, or Four Thousand Islands to those of us who speak English. This is where the Mekong explodes into a wide expanse filled with a plethora of islands (about four thousand of them, apparently) and also forms the border between Laos and Cambodia, our next destination.
Jen and I eventually - after a boat trip which followed a pick-up ride which followed a bus journey - made it to Don Khon, the island we'd decided to base ourselves on, and over the past three days we've managed to eat great food and drink a lot of cheap beer (I know, who would have thought?) while lazing around the banks of the Mekong. Ban Khon, the main village of Don Khon, is the kind of idyllic place where you can simply and happily lose track of time.
We did, however, also get our fair share of exercise by renting bikes (again!) and cycling around the islands. Our second day was particularly memorable, as first we explored two more fantastic waterfalls, Somphamit and Phapheng, both of which more than matched what we'd seen in Tad Lo. In fact, Phapheng (the third and fourth photos below) is by volume the largest waterfall in Southeast Asia.
An even bigger highlight was still to come, when we boarded a boat in the early evening to go spotting the rare Irrawaddy dolphin. We'd been told it could be hit and miss as to if and how many of these beautiful creatures we'd see, but Jen and I were lucky enough to view about twenty of them over the course of an hour or more. You can (just) make out a fin or two in the pic below, but we'll upload a video soon which will give a far better picture of the experience.
So that was Don Khon, one of Si Phan Don and a worthy place to spend our final few days in the fascinating, friendly and beautiful country of Laos. An equally fascinating, but more troubled, country awaits us next - Cambodia.
Things Jennie will remember:
1) That I'm really starting to crave fresh Coconut Milk
2) The dolphins!!!!!
3) Being able to view Cambodia from Laos (this time much more pretty than Thailand from Laos)
4) The monk at the waterfall
5) Riding back on our bikes in the dark from the other end of the island - the road was so rocky that my wrists were killing me from holding on for dear life!
6) That hammocks are the world's greatest invention
Here are the pics:
Beautiful
ReplyDelete