Been there, Don Det

It has been a couple of busy days on the Mekong islands in Laos.

This archipelago is known as the 4000 islands and it is so green and lush, surrounded by one of the biggest river in the world.

We stayed mainly in Don Det, the first day we rented bikes (less than £1 for the whole day) and biked through the island. It is bigger than I thought it would be, but roads were flat thank Goodness! 

We biked to Don Khon, an island that is connected with a bridge, where you can see another waterfalls (it was really nice but I am planning to avoid waterfalls for a while after this one... Laos just seems to be one long waterfall!), a small beach and a rescued gibbon called Miss Hoi.

The colours of these paddy fields!

The small roads we biked on the island

We made it back to the village - well, the bar, just in time for sunset. Tired and very hot but give me this and a couple of Beer Lao any day! 

The second day we decided to step it up a notch and booked a kayaking tour. Neither of us had ever been kayaking before and we went as a large group. The local guides were good, but my steering skills were very poor and the river was going fast. We hit some grade 2 rapids (not sure if that is high or not) but the thing that really got us were the bushes and branches on the river. We got a big smug in the first half as everyone else capsized but we did not, just to capsized as soon as we set off again. Lost one paddle, but both ourselves and the paddle got rescued and could carry on. We got stuck on some rocks again on the way down, got a few scrapes and were generally tired and sore... I did enjoy it though and kept asking Ben if we can go kayaking in the UK :-) the trip also involved walking to yet another waterfall (also known as walking over tiny bridges and through some Mekong mud) and a boat ride to see the endangered Mekong dolphins. Not overly impressed by the waterfalls but we saw a couple of dolphins and it was nice to know the locals are doing their best to look after these fresh water dolphins seeing there's only less than 100 of them apparently!

After that trip, we went for one last Lao Laap (minced meat with garlic, shallots, coriander and lots of fresh Asian spices) and one last local brew. That was our last stop in Laos, a bit sad to be leaving the land of baguettes (they used to be a French colony) but excited to move on. We crossed the land border to Cambodia (which involved sitting 4hr in a cramped mini van with someone who forgot his deodorant!) and arrived to Siem Reap, the home of the mighty Angkor Wat.