Return to civilisation…in Laos
Only our adventures were just beginning, we waited 2 hours to ‘check in’ as our room wasn’t ready. In hindsight I think that was a sign. However, we finally got into our room and I started the shower….only to find 10min later the hot water didn’t work. After waiting for 10min – ‘maybe someone come fix’ as the staff put it, I came down and demanded another room. Ok then, hot water works but air con and lights are broken. Hmm.Finally we had to actually march into the managers office who showed us a deluxe room. We tested the hot water, air con and lights, once we received a resounding yes on the operational functionality of these we took it.What a trial! We rewarded ourselves with dinner, trying the famous or infamous Mekong river weed! Seaweed with sesame crispy fried. Amazingly delicious.
Greg made new friends on the island. So tiny!
The island we stayed on is called Don Khon, the quieter sister of the party island Don Det. Sadly Don Det is now a tourist mecca, famous for the“Been there, Don Det”t-shirts worn by all the 18yr old backpackers holding beers cans and sporting dreads and smelly clothes, and the girls in tiny short shorts and bikinis – despite it being offensive to locals. Sadly this seemed to be in most places we visited in SE Asia despite numerous signs in English and guidebooks explaining this is inappropriate for a traditional and religious country, not to mention for the holy Buddhist temples.
Don Khon was more our style, with a tiny charming village with one street of tourist restaurants on one side and then a few settlements and houses dotted around the other sides. It is still mostly a farming community, with a few restaurants and a wonderful juice stand that also sold ice coffees with sweetened condensed milk. Heaven.
We learnt about the ‘bakong’ (dolphins) who like Cambodia waters more than Laos. There is an invisible line across the waters where the border between the countries is, and Laos fisherman seem to know exactly where it is and are willing to toe the line to see thebakongbut not too much further. The dolphins jumped and were little dots in the distance on our cameras. We continued our incomprehensible Laotian conversation to the amusement of other travellers in tiny boats. (We did actually learn quite a bit, bakong = dolphins, sun = aesngtauen, beautiful = ngam, drink = laolao, boat = heu, water = nu + the other Lao was spoke, we could kind of follow his thoughts).
Mekong fish bbq was on the menu that night along with some Laolao mojitos! Party time for our last night in Laos.
Crossing the border into Cambodia
Till next timeJade & Greg xx
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