Dan's Adventure

Si Phon Don, four thousand islands, is located in most southern part of Laos just beyond the border with Cambodia. The number of islands depends on the water level of the Mekong river, the majority are no more than small sand banks, but there are three larger inhabited islands. Don Khong is the most northern and the largest, whilst Don Det and Don Khon are further south and have in recent years become a bit of a backpackers destination. I headed to Don Det.

Don Det is the livelier of the two, Don Khon is a bit more expensive and far quieter than Don Det. Both are however connected by an old railway bridge, a leftover from the days of the French using the water around the islands to transport logs, so it is possible to go between the two islands. I decided that Don Det would be a fun place to spend Christmas, there would be a party if I wanted and when I wanted to chill out I would have my hammock. I wasn’t disappointed.

Accommodation on Don Det comes in the shape of wooden bungalows. My bungalow was set back from the river in a garden, and had no more than a thin mattress on a bamboo platform with a mosquito net draped over it. It was a bit like sleeping in a garden shed. For 2 dollars a night it was a bargain.

Over the next 4 days I cycled around Don Det and Don Khon, pushed my bike back from Don Khon after the chain snapped, walked around Don Khon, spent far too much time in my hammock, ate lots of cakes from the Australian bakery and drank far too much Lao whisky. Bottles of whisky are sold for just over 1 dollar which is the same price as a bottle of Beer Lao and cheaper than the bottles of cola we were buying as mixers!

As expected the island was very busy over Christmas with several of the restaurants putting on special Christmas meals. Being a vegetarian I’m not too fussed about having anything in particular for Christmas so I was quite happy to go for a curry at the Indian place before joining everyone else in the bars later on. The interesting thing about spending Christmas away from home is seeing how everyone else celebrates it. A lot of people make a bigger deal of Christmas eve than Christmas day so there ended up being a few parties going on on Christmas eve as well with most people ending up down on the beach after the curfew kicked in.

Beach, hammock and whisky was a great way to spend Christmas.