Vang Vieng to Si Phon Don

Pic: Si Phon Don



We left Vang Vieng on a Thursday morning, arriving into Vientiane (capital of Laos) just around lunchtime. We sauntered into the guesthouse just across the road cos we didn't fancy going any further in the heat.

We got out and about pretty lively however, as we needed to pick up our passports which had been sent on from Luang Prabang to the Vietnamese Embassy to process our visas (required three working days). Decided to walk it and of course, we were sweltering within 10 minutes. En route we saw the "Arc de Triomphe", which we contemplated for all of 30 seconds before moving on. It is set at the top of a very nice boulevard however.

Collected the passports, then headed back to find a few nice spots as recommended by the Lonely Planet. This time we more than agreed with their recommendations; some of which have made it to our "What's Hot" section. After sheltering from a downpour in the Scandinavian Bakery (where we sampled excellent coffee washed down with chocolate and carrott cakes!) we headed back towards the river for a very nice sunset bevvie.

The following morning we busied ourselves with getting cash for the next week or so and arranging the bus trip for 8pm that evening to Si Phon Don. Sancha treated herself to a rather fabulous head and back massage before heading off on the overnighter.... Arriving at the bus station, we were soooo happy when we saw the VIP bus (air-conned, reclining seats, WC, eats provided etc). Finally! We get the bus we always see on the road and wonder why we didn't get never managed to get one before! It wasn't long before our hopes were dashed.

We obviously drew the short straw. Or annoyed somebody's karma somewhere.

Never EVER accept seat numbers 15 and 16 on a VIP bus in Laos. There's twice more room on Ryanair.

We couldn't believe it. Looking around all we could see were locals who are so much more petite and neater than us in these enormous spaces. HOW we ended up with seats that can only be described as childrens' car seats is beyond us. Once the people in front reclined their seats, we were actually wedged into position. Some comfort was achieved by reclining ours, throwing one set of legs into the aisle and the other under the other person's legs. On our 10 hour overnighter, we were lucky if we got 1 hours sleep.

We broke the back on the journey through Laos significantly though. This bus journey brought us right down to Pakse (about 600km from Vientiane), where we arrived around 6.30 am. Then straight onto another bus with took about 3 hours to bring us to Nakasang, one of the "ports" for the Four Thousand Islands (Si Phon Don). The Mekhong widens significantly and there are literally islands of all sizes in this very pretty part of the world. We took a boat over to Don Det where we basically stayed for the
next three days. The heat was unreal however, it's one of the hottest places in the country. One girl travelling on the bus with us, from the US, was leaving the following days and wanted to fit in a tour of the area that afternoon, so we managed to convince one of the local tour guys (everyone here is one!) to bring us on a spontaneous trip! You've got to hand it to people in this part of the world, they are very obliging and will accomodate you pretty much any time.

So we headed off for the afternoon and saw the large waterfall (Khone) apparently the largest one by volume in Asia. Then we were fortunate enough to see the rare freshwater Irrawaddy Dolphins. We probably saw about 6 of them while we were standing on a rock in the middle of the Mekhong - not every 'tour' does that I'll bet! The next two days basically saw us cycling around Don Det and Don Khon (connected by the first bridge ever built in Laos; by the french). Really, very, very pretty spot. If you have the stamina to get here in the first place, you should get here! Will get the pics up here as soon as we can! It was pretty quiet when we were there, hard to imagine it in high season; glad we weren't visiting it then!