Post #10 - Southern Laos

Hello Bloggers,

It's hard to believe we're already writing our tenth installment, but time flies when you're having fun.

We flew from Vientiane to Pakse, in the south, before taking an interesting Songthaew ride to Champasak.  We stayed here for two nights, mostly to stop and see the ruins of Wat Phou.  These pre-date the Angkor ruins in Cambodia, and the perfect location made them a pleasure to visit.  It was interesting because the government is still in the process of protecting the site and collecting important artifacts.  In a lot of other places like Italy or Greece, this had been done long ago, so it was cool to see a work in progress.  Pat almost had a heat stroke, however.  We rode the 10 kilometers out to the ruins on bicycles at the hottest point in the day.  We were pouring out sweat much quicker then we could drink water.  Wat Phou is small but it's straight up hill a few hundred feet, so by the time we climbed it and biked back we were both starting to get headaches.  We drank as much water as we could, but it was too late to stop the migraine-like pounding from taking hold.  Luckily that's all it was and Pat was fine by the next day.  Lesson learned.  There is nothing else to speak of here except for the largest cockroach that has ever lived.  It was the size of a man's fist and literally screeched like a bat!  Incredible.

We left for Si Phon Don and arrived there after a quick two hour bus ride.  The two main islands people stay on are Don Khon and Don Det.  We stayed on Don Det.  This is a wonderfully relaxing place, and we were happy to spend four nights here.  It's pretty basic, with 24 hour electricity only being introduced a couple of years ago.  We stayed at "Mama's" Thong Don Family Bungalows.  It was idyllic.  Our "bungalow"" (more like a shed with a bed) was one of three sitting on the water.  As we laid in our hammocks on the balcony, we could take a break from reading and turn our heads to see a perfect sunset every night.  When we weren't lounging on the hammocks, we were lounging on inner tubes in the river.  A tough 10 step walk from our bungalow led to the Mekong, and the water was perfect.  The days were hot, but it didn't really matter since we could jump in the water all day.  The river is still deep and powerful, but it's a far cry from up north.  It's much wider than in Louang Prabang (which makes sense; think of the Hudson River in Manhattan and then in Albany), so the current is much weaker and the water clearer.  They say there are 4,000 islands, but many of them are nothing more than a bush or sand piled an inch above the water.  There are sandbars everywhere, and they make for good spots to meet other travelers as we wade in the middle of the river and exchange stories.
The only drawback, which didn't turn into a drawback at all, was the money situation.  We weren't thinking and didn't take money out before traveling to the area, so we had to ration everything to make it last the four days.  This meant we didn't take the boat out to the pool to see the rare Irrawaddy dolphins, but it was probable we wouldn't have seen them anyway.  Everyone we talked to who did go did not have any luck, despite the fact they're the islands star attraction.  The one day we didn't just sit on our asses we rented bikes and rode to Don Det's larger neighbor, Don Khon.  We rode about 15 kilometers overall, but we were sure to drink a ton of water.  We were also able to stop whenever we wanted for a refreshing dip in the river.  The best site we saw was the impressive Somphamit Waterfall(s).  We coincidentally bumped into our friends Jon and Sarah from the north of Laos as well.  We've agreed to meet up in Phnom Penh for dinner.
The best part of Si Phon Don was the relaxing, however, and meeting all sorts of interesting people.  The Thong Don family are awesome.  There is Mama and Papa, along with a multitude of other family members, our favorite being Oui.  One day Papa and his friends decided not to work, and took a bottle or two of laolao (Lao rice whiskey) over to one of the islands and got smashed.  Shauna and I were invited to join them as we passed by on our tubes.  We drank the harsh, homemade whiskey and ate fresh raw snails they collected from the river only seconds before.  After wrapping them in the leaves ripped off the bushes and dipping them in sweet chili sauce, they weren't half bad.  Papa and his friends said we were friends for life.  They loved we were brave enough to try it.  The different guests also added to the atmosphere.  There were a group of young hippie French students who didn't move much from the floor of the restaurant/hang out area.  They helped organize a "dance party" our first night there and it was a great introduction to the island.  Two Brits, who overlapped us by only that first night, ordered a bottle of laolao and promptly finished it seven minutes later.  There was a lovely American couple from Portland, OR, who were traveling for six weeks after a year of teaching in Korea.  There were a ton of Canadians as well for some reason.  They're all over SE Asia of course, but an inordinate amount of the people we met over the four days seemed to have come from Canada.  They've given us a lot of tips for our cross continent trip this summer and have gotten us excited for the Canadian Rockies. 

Overall, Don Det was a great place to chill out before hitting the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh and Angkor Wat.

We'll be back in a week or so.

Peace,

S&P