Another relaxing Mekong island

Already Laos has meant chilling out a lot more with other travellers. There seems to be a slightly different vibe already. I do miss the Cambodian people though. It is exciting to be in a new country and seeing how things pan out. There is less English here, and it is great fun seeing people communicate with each other. 

A sunset over the Mekong at Don Det

The trip up from Kratie included a three hour mini van ride. Where we were packed to the brim (and damn uncomfortable). I got a heck of a fright when a melon fell on my head and when I heard a fish jumping around in a polystyrene box behind my head. 

Me at the waterfalls

Our his and hers bikes

Don Det. One of the four thousand islands in southern Laos. Chilled to the max. Not a lot to do apart from enjoy sunsets, swim, eat, drink and flow in a tube. We hung out with a lot of neat travellers over our time here. Ate pumpkin burgers and generally relaxed. We also took a bike ride to some waterfalls on an adjacent island (rode across a bridge to get there) and that was pretty fun, cruising around the islands on a bike. Also meant we got to check out this other great place for lunch (yes, our time here really did involve very little activity other than eating). In our defence, it was crazy crazy hot on Don Det anyway. It meant we had a whole day of Non-Asian food though, which was a nice change (we had Indian for dinner).

I am fighting a cold at the moment. Ironic huh, considering it is anything but cold here. Pretty sure I caught it off the cute children on Koh Throng. But Mama makes some good food here (even though she speaks very few words of English) so hopefully that should help.

Our pimped out bus from Pakse to Tha Kheak

After we left Don Det we had a decent (not crazy long) day of travelling ahead. Saw a funny bike in Pakse, it was like a moto and a motorbike joined together but with two wheels at the back. It looked kind of crazy. The bus ride was a journey and a half. The first part (few hours) was fine. And then we changed buses. So much for the express service. What really happened was a local style bus, that stopped every few seconds when someone wanted to get on and off. You can imagine it was no longer the easy 6 hour leg we expected. The bus was pretty funny though. You have to love the pimped out buses they have here... and you have to love the karaoke (blasting ridiculously loud).... either that or it all makes you want to pull your hair out and throw things.