4000 Islands

In one place on the southern tip of Laos, the Mekong widens, breaking the land up into countless small islands, I don't know exactly how many, this all depends on ones definition of an island, but the Laos people estimated it at the round number of 4000, hence its name, Si Phi Don, which I can only assume translates to 4000 islands. Despite the thousands of options, most tourists stay on one of three island, Don Khong, the largest, big enough for a few towns, Don Khan, a small quiet island surrounded by waterfalls, and our choice, the most popular, Don Det.

At one time, it was merely a rice paddy, but travellers discovered it, fell in love with the laid back lifestyle of the people and it became something a bit different than what drew people there in the first place. Don Det is still relaxing, and there are still rice farms in the areas without Mekong views. The shore of the whole island is filled with a line of poorly built bungallows. We stayed in one our first night for a dollar, then upgraded our accommodation for our next couple nights.

We didn't do much; it's not really a "doing" type place. We rented some tubes and floated down the river. I was sad to learn the river was too swift and high to allow us to rent kayaks, so we just hung out with Diogo, Marian, and Blancdine. We discovered a fun place called the Happy Bar, being run by potheads who were too stoned to do simple things such as cooking and baking (though the food was quite good). A Canadian woman did come to the rescue, attempting to help them with a cake. She asked the manager if he had a rubber spatula. He simply looked her in the eye and replied, "This is Laos." They were much better at bar-tending.