We spent two nights in the 4,000 Islands, the very southernmost part of Laos. Truly there must be no less than 4,000 islands as it seems there is “island” after island throughout this area. We arrived on the island of Don Det via a short ferry ride from the main land. Yes the photograph of the car “ferry” was our boat! Found ourselves a guest house and promptly ran into several people we had met previously in Laos. We made plans with a couple from the UK, George and Emily to take a day trip on the Mekong River that included kayaking, waterfalls and the rare Irrawaddy Dolphin.
We were all very excited for the trip and we had an early start, 9:00am. Loaded into our two person kayaks, we set off down the Mekong. The river is quite low as they say they are at a twenty year low on water levels. We make our way through some areas that we must take great care as the rocks are hard to avoid. We land our kayaks and take a short walk through the bamboo to reach our first waterfall of the day, Li Phi. Very nice even though the water is low. A short but refreshing swim at the beach is enjoyed before we reboard the kayaks to continue our journey south. The day is quite hot and many times we splash each other to keep cool. We stop for lunch before we continue down to the border of Laos and Cambodia and the “rare” Irrawaddy fresh water Dolphins. We arrive and see them almost straight away. How lucky we are! The sighting was brief but indeed a sighting was had. I was not sure that we would see them again, but after a brief time they resurface once again this time we saw six all at one time in the area. It is not easy to get a photo of a dolphin swimming in the water, not quite sure where they might resurface next.
We then carry on south for a good bit further before we take the kayaks out of the water and take a tuk tuk to the Khanpenyon Waterfall, the largest (by water volume) in all of Southeast Asia. What a sight! The amount of water flowing over the falls is massive, much like Niagara Falls.
Exhausted was the word of the evening and the photograph of Tim at sunset was reflective of how we all felt after our day on the Mekong River. Wasn’t sunset gorgoues!
We are lucky enough to get a motor bike ride back to our guest house, much nicer than the 45 minute walk we were expecting. We each got to ride on the back of a scooter along the bumpy and dusty roads, yes we hung on.
A wonderful, tiring day was had by all.
~Karen~
We had a nice time in the islands, but didn’t get off to a great start. When we arrived to the island, I made the call that we would stay in bungalows by the old bridge. The book said this was near the end of the path and in a quieter area. Once we saw the conglomeration of guest houses at the arrival beach it confirmed our desire to stay further away. What the book didn’t mention is that it was over two kilometers to the bungalows I selected. We hiked the whole way with all of our gear. About 30 kilos each between our two bags. It would have been easy for the family to have a quick rebellion and lynch that day’s tour director, but they trudged on like troopers and we finally arrived. The good news was that the bungalows were much nicer than those that we passed. Tim was rewarded with a brownie from the Australian baker. Quite a treat since we have pretty much eliminated sweets from our diet.
~Jeff~
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