Sweating it on Don Khon, Laos

Erik: After our 2^nd sojourn in Kratie, we headed north to Laos. We'd booked ourselves on what should have been a luxury minivan for the 5 hour ride, but they “overbooked” the van and instead of 10 passengers, we had 16! In addition to the cramped quarters, several of the seats were a bit broken, making things most uncomfortable. Our driver was cranky and I'm pretty sure that he was very hung-over as well, as he seemed to be trying everything not to doze off at the wheel – stopping several times for energy drinks, to pour water over his head, etc. What a fun ride! The border crossing into Laos was pretty uneventful, though we had to pay “overtime” fees to officials on both sides since we were crossing on the weekend, which must make for a tidy bonus for any official lucky enough to work the weekend.

Once in Laos, we boarded another, slightly more comfortable van, which took us to the Mekong River, where we boarded a small, covered boat to head out to the Si Phan Don (4000 Islands) area of southern Laos. That boat took us to the first major island, Don Det, where we needed to change to an even smaller, uncovered motorized canoe for the ride out to Don Khon, where we hoped to stay. I say “hope”, as when we arrived on Don Khon, it appeared that the island was full. There are only about 9 guest houses on the island, and the first 6 we checked were all full. Finally after much lugging of backpacks up and down the hot, dusty street (yes, only one dirt “street” on the island), we found the Pakha Guest House with a decent bungalow for 70,000 Kip, which we thought to be about $7. That was our next surprise – the Lao economy was strong and the Kip had gained against the dollar, so instead of a the 10,000-1 exchange rate we expected, we were only getting 8000-1, which made everything quite a bit more expensive.

The island was relaxing and lovely (I kept having to remind myself that I was in land-locked Laos rather than a tropical island,) though it was brutally hot as well. It did cool off a bit at night, but we still found it a bit difficult to sleep in the heat, as our fan only worked until 10pm, when they switched off the generator. At least it came with a much-needed mosquito net – ah the rustic life on a small island!

The next day we walked out to the Li Phi falls, where the Mekong plunges through a series of cascades into a beautiful rock gorge. The locals believe it to be a sacred spot which holds the spirits of all those that died on the river. We found it both impressive and beautiful. The walk there and back, though, was extremely dusty and hot (each day it was getting progressively hotter), so once back to the guest house we treated ourselves to one of their specialties, a coffee-banana shake. And then another. It was so good and refreshing.

That's more than can be said for most of the food on the island. It seemed that every restaurant shared the exact same menu – mediocre fried noodles or fried rice, pricey fried fish, etc. At least there was no shortage of cold, delicious Beer Lao on the island, which I found far more interesting than the over-priced, bad food.

The next day I decided to walk around the island. Unfortunately I didn't quite realize how big the island was. I also didn't realize that the sunscreen I'd purchased in Kratie was bogus, and actually provided no SPF protection at all (it claimed SPF 60 on the bottle.) The result being that I returned from a long, long walk, parched from lack of water and beet red on my arms, neck and chest. Did I mention how hot it was on the island? The last mile or so of the walk, I was whistling the “Bridge on the River Kwai” song, marching at full stride and trying not to collapse from exhaustion and dehydration. Water had never tasted so good as when I finally got back.

Still, all-in-all, Don Khon is a beautiful, tranquil place, and surely more pleasant when visited before the hot, dry season. We were treated to several beautiful sunsets over the mekong, but after just a couple of days, we were ready to move on.

Talor: After moving so quickly through Cambodia, going from place to place and never really settling in anywhere for very long, I was looking forward to just chilling out for awhile on Don Khon. With nothing much to do but swing on a hammock, read a book and just relax and watch life unfold at Lao pace, it sounded ideal. Unfortunately, the heat and the food made it an unpleasant stay...

There was just no way to escape the heat! The river water wasn't too enticing with it's weird soupy green color, and we heard that it had river flukes so that wasn't an option. Took cold shower after cold shower but found myself constantly soaked through with sweat. We counted the hours til 6:00 when the generator would be turned on and we could run the fan, but we found it hard to fall asleep once it went off at 10:00.

Also, after eating mostly Cambodian food for a month, I was really looking forward to trying Lao cuisine, which had some interesting sounding dishes. Unfortunately, all the eateries were attached to guesthouses and had pretty much the same menu serving their idea of what western tourists like to eat... fried rice, fried noodles, banana pancakes and muesli... boring!

On the positive side, the scenery around us was lovely, the sunsets gorgeous and the banana-coffee shake, as strange as it sounds, was really delicious. But sadly, it wasn't enough to keep me there so, once again, time to move on...

Our photos...

Don Khon, Laos