Don Khong and Don Det

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Trip Start May 05, 2008 Previous
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  Si Phan Don, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Monday, August 4, 2008

Si Phan Don or 4,000 islands as they are more commonly known is a curious conglomerete of islands in the midst of the Mekong river. There are two main islands; Don Khong and Don Kong / Don Det. We spent 2 nights on Don Khong and stayed at Mr Pons GH. This island is nice but it is expensive. We rented bikes and cycled around the island (32 km). I got a puncture 5km before the end and had to walk the rest of the way. It is very relaxing and beautiful here.

Later, we took a boat to Don Det (40,000 kip) and stayed there for a night. Don Det is much more chilled and amazingly cheap. We had a wooden hut on the river for 10,000 kip! If we had come here in the begining we could have stayed of days on out remaining kip.

We met a man from Leeds called Andrew who runs a little resturant on Don Det. He was a social worker in England for 15 years, had his own house and everything but he wasn't happy. He decided to sell his house and quit his job and stayed with a friend in India for 8 months. India wasn't really for him so he went to Laos where he had a friend on Don Det. He became a partner in a business there and has been on the island for the last 3.5 years and has not looked back since. Fair play to him. I admire people who go out and do something like that instead of spending their lives procrastinating and feeling miserable.

Si Phan Don is a great place to unwind and spend a few days. It is very friendly and you meet loads of people here. Unfortunately, we could not stay long as our cash is running out and we have barely enough to get across the border to Cambodia.

Laos Summary
---------------
- Northern Laos is very beautiful. I would love to see it in the dry season and do some treks.
- Great country for cycling. Some good roads and not much traffic.
- The people are nice but perhaps not as openly friendly as in other countries.
- Laos is developing rapidly and the government on the surface seems to be doing a good job.
- It is a communist country but you wouldn't know it.
- Never heard anyone complain about their government.
- Tourism is growing rapidly and there are fancy guesthouse going up all over the place.
- Some activities such as tubing, kayaking are not well regulated and often quite dangerous. 2 people died while we were here.
- Southern Laos is not so good in the wet season. Si Phan Don is great though.
- Didn't get to the Plain of Jars but the war history out there is interesting.
- In Phonsayan, there is apparently a foundry where they melt down UXO's for their metal. Supposed to be some impressive views of piles and piles of these bombs. Many people go out with metal detectors looking for UXOs as the metal is valuable.

Cambodia next stop!

--
Dave & Angie

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little girl	biker chick	rice bushles	getting vehicles across the river
dead snake	paddy field workers	storm brewing	three ginger cats
hey there	monkey on my back	resturant kitchen	angie gets some kip
river house	boats on the river	more paddies	paddy workers
old lady	typical house	dave cross legged	river scene
gone fishing	buffulo paradise	rice bushle transport	boy and beast

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