Don Det... it is another world altogether. If you stay there too long you get sucked into the chilled atmosphere and you will never again have the energy to leave your hammock! It has got to be the most laid back place I have ever been. It took about 40 minutes to find the waiter at the restaurant (so when our friend asked for a candle instead of ordering his food we never let him hear the end of it! It took another 30minutes before the candle arrived and we could order our dinner).
Don Det was all about swimming, reading and chilling in a hammock. Our two energetic moments in four days involved an hours bike ride and Rich stripping to his birthday suit and leaping over the side of a bar into the river several metres below... since it was 1am we were all promptly kicked out. And because all this was done under a "if you do it I'll do it" challenge we planned a covert operation for the remaining three boys in our group to 'break' (ie: climb over the small fence) back into the bar, strip down and take the plunge. Rich was camera man and I was protector of clothes. Mission was successfully accomplished without bar openener waking up. Good fun!
After Don Det we headed to Pakse; the city of the South. We hired motorbikes at the earliest opportunity and after a morning of learning how to ride a motorbike (and with only two close calls; one involving a group of children jumping out of the way of my skidding bike!) we were planning our trip around the countryside. We headed off the next morning... first stop: Tad Lo. It was the first of many waterfalls. The area was pretty; we stayed in a lovely bamboo bungalow set in lush gardens and recovered after several hours on the bike in the hot sun.
One of many waterfalls we found
Over the next 3 days we visited another 3 small cities; we saw some beautiful scenery and we enjoyed the friendliness of the locals. Lao people are amazing; kids waved to us constantly and even adults gave us a few shouts of hellos with huge smiles. We had local ice cream (very coconutty), tried the coffee farmed on the fields we passed by whilst riding on the Bolaven Plateau and ate quite a bit of noodle soup. The hours on our bums took their toll but the freedom the bikes gave us was fantastic. I loved the challenge of driving on bumpy dirt roads and dodging HUGE potholes (it really hurt if you failed to dodge them!) We made it back to Pakse with not even a puncture and after indulging in some western food we planned our trip to Vientiane - Laos' capital.
We only spent two days in Vientiane; being the capital it really catered to tourists and the prices were double to what we were used to. But we took advantage of the great restaurants and enjoyed the food we found. We hired a motorbike again and explored the city and drove out to see the Buddha Park. It was a great day. The bike did get a puncture though but luckily there are repair shops every few metres; so 20minutes and 10,000kip (less than £1) later we were back on the road.
After two days we decided to make our way to the party town of Vang Vieng; famous for its pub crawl along the river. We get tubes and float down the river until a bar catches our fancy; then the bar staff throw you a rope to pull you in. Should be fun! Will send an update ASAP.
S&R.
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