My last stop in Laos was the nicknamed 4000 islands.  This is an area on the Mekong River where the river get’s very wide and splits into many islands.  It is the very southern tip of Laos and is pretty much a place to chill.  Once we finished the loop, the scooter crew decided that we would take the 1am sleeper bus to Pakse, spend a night in Pakse then head to Don Det the following day.  The sleep bus was very interesting, it basically just picked us up on the side of the road and there weren’t enough beds for everyone.  So the 5 of us in our group were packed into the back which contained 2 beds designed for 4 people.

The sleeper buses in Laos are basically double mattresses on a bus and so if you are traveling alone, you might be paired up with a random in your bed.

Luckily we all knew each other and even though we were crammed, it was still alright.  I slept basically the entire 6 hour ride and arrived in Pakse at 7:30am.

When we were preparing to disembark from the bus, one one of the bus people asked if we were going to Pakse or 400 islands.  We were really only going to Pakse to break up the trip so when we found out we could get a mini bus to 4000 islands 1 hour from our arrival, we jumped at the fact and boarded a mini bus for an additional 3 hour drive south.

I has looked into what there was to do in Pakse and in town there was really nothing, but in talking to people, it may have been worth it to stop there and rent a motorbike to see the waterfalls just outside of town.  There is a plateau just outside of town with a few very impressive waterfalls.  It would have taken an additional 2 days, but I think it would have been pretty neat.  Oh well.  On to Don Det and the 4000 islands.

Don Det is a very small island that is only accessible by long boat.  The mini bus dropped us off at at the dock and we were off to the island in our long boat.

We had heard good things about the easy go hostel and decided that this was our plan of attack.  Only problem with this hostel is that is is a 20 minute walk up the trail in the noon blistering heat with all of our bags.  It was a trek to get out there but we made it and upon arriving we had an option to get a double twin bungalow for only 50,000 Kip per night.  Adrien and I split it, so we got a bed for $3 each, at a super chill hostel on the river.

I planned on staying for three nights to just chill out, as this is the major thing to do on the island.  Turns out there are a few things to do.  The first night, we headed into town for some dinner.  The place we went had the same bbq type dish I had in Luong Prabang and so decided to treat my self by getting it solo.  It didn’t have the same cool cone shaped cooking implement, but was delicious all the same.

After dinner we decided to check out the night life scene and made our way to pretty much the only bar in the town.  4000 islands bar was hopping.  There was a leaderboard for the purchase of a bucket, where your country of origin would get a point if you bought a bucket of booze from the bar.  The leading country was by far the Netherlands as it seems like everyone we met on the island so far was dutch.  I need to make a special comment about just how many dutch people were there.  It was actually pretty crazy how many were around as I hadn’t noticed thhhatt many dutch people in previous towns and cities.  I took it easy this night since I was planning a long run for the morning and had to get up early to beat the heat.

Despite waking up at 6:30 and being on the road by 6:45, the heat was already apparent.  Mix this will fairly poor dirt roads and forever tired legs and you have a fairly slow long run.  I wanted to do at least 20 miles (32 km) and so I set off around the islands.  There are two islands connected by a bridge a smaller one called Don Det and a slightly bigger one called Don Khon.  Both of these islands are in the middle of the Mekong.  I decided that I was going to explore as much as I could of both islands.  Don Det is only 6.5km around so I would have to do some exploring indeed.  My first stop was to a medium sized waterfall which typically requires a 35,000 kip entrance fee ($4.50) but since I was running at around 7am, there was nobody at the ticket counter and I just ran in.

I would have been pretty dissapointed if I had paid as the waterfall in dry season was OK but not that impressive.  I ran around the little park they have set up near the waterfall then set off to find the next attraction on the island.  I came across a beach and a view of a wider part of the river and then continued on to the far tip where boats embark on dolphin watching expeditions.  The 4000 islands are home to very rare fresh water dolphins and there are actually only 3 left living in that part of the river.  I’m not really sure how the tour boats affect them but I opted to skip this boat trip.  I continued onwads down what I thought was a path that stuck more towards the outer edge of the island and as I continued it got worse and worse.  Eventually, I cam to this really sketchy bridge which I crossed and then came to another really sketchy bridge which did not look safe to cross.

I decided to take a detour and ended up losing the path all together and bushwhacking for a little bit.  I then made it to civilization, found another waterfall and ran through a small town.  Needless to say, the pace that I managed on this run was not impressive but I did manage to get in all 32km.

After my run, I took a dip in the river and then had some food.  That afternoon a group of people from the hostel had decided to go to the big waterfall, which required a boat trip back to the mainland and then a tuk tuk to the waterfall.  We crossed on to the mainland and began our search for a tuk tuk.  It’s funny that whenever you don’t want a tuk tuk, they are bothering you to take one and when you actually want one they are nowhere to be found.  We ended up finding one, who called some friends and we were off to the waterfall.

The tuk tuk driver was hilarious and talked to us the whole way.  When we got there he asked if we wanted to go swimming when we go there and all of us did, so he said he would take us to a cool spot.  The waterfall itself was impressive from a power perspective.  You could feel the power of the water and it was really decently impressive.  It was no Niagara Falls, but still pretty cool.  After some photos, the driver took us upstream a bit and pointed us to a pool in a calmer section of the waterfall that was good for swimming.

The water was great and there was a waterfall at the top of the pool which you could go inside.  It was a great way to cool off and a lot of fun.  One of the guys in our group had a drone and was nice enough to share some of his photos and videos.

Upon returning to the dock the tuk tuk driver arranged for a cheaper boat ride back for us and even hung out for a few beers with us.  He then told us about a party that was happening on the island that evening.  It was a once a year big Laos party and he suggested we check it out.

After a small break we regrouped and decided to head over to the Laos part which was happening on the other island a few minutes bike ride away.  We arrived and there were food and game vendors, two stages with entertainment and plenty of locals milling about.  We grabbed some beer and some food and walked around the festivities for a bit and then headed to the stage.  The first entertainment was a singer and backup dancers and the second was a very strange cross dresser comedy show.

It consisted of two cross dressing men interacting with each other for a long time.  I have no idea what they were saying but the locals seemed to enjoy it.

After watching the stage for a bit I continued to wander and ended up stumbling across a bunch of children surrounding a board.  Upon further inspection I relaized that it was a gambling game.  There was a grid with 6 animals on it, then a child would pull an envelope containing 3 cards.  Prior to the start of the round, you placed your money on one of the six animals and if your animal was in the envelope you doubled your money.  I have no idea what the odds were or why only children were playing but I lost 3,000 kip ($.40) in about 7 minutes.  It was an experience and I am still confused why this is a thing.  I also went to the midway and tried to high five as many kids as possible who were riding the rotating swing ride.  They really enjoyed it and so did I.

Eventually most of the foreigners were leaving and I decided that this was a good idea, although I heard that the party continued until the wee hours of the morning.

The next day I woke up to a rainy day.  I didn’t have much planned this day but it was sill not fun that it was raining.  A few of the guys in the hostel needed to do some adulting in town, so we decided to take advantage of a short break in the rain and head into town to book some bus tickets and exchange some money.  We did not make it very far down the road before it started to rain heavily again so we went into a bar for a beer to wait out the rain.  Once the rain slowed down, we continued down the road and eventually had to break again.  We ended up going to three different places before the rain finally held off for a longer ammout of time.  We called it the rainy day pub crawl and it was pretty fun.  At one of the places, there was a sign outside that said Canadian approved poutine, so I had to give it a try.  It was actually pretty good and the guy also made his own ginger ale and ginger beer which was also delicious.

After returning to the hostel, I had a nap and upon waking up, had a very upset stomach and it got worse as the night progressed.  I ended up with my first bout of medium strength food poisoning that night so just chilled in the bungalow and went to bed early.  I was supposed to take a bus to Phnom Penh the next day but the last thing I wanted was to sit on a bus for 8-10 hours with an upset stomach and the risk of having to go to the bathroom at any moment.  I asked if I could defer my bus and luckily, they let me defer to the next day.

I was feeling much better by around noon and basically spent the day reading, napping and lounging around.  I went for a run and then went for korean food with some new friends who had just arrived.

On my run, I managed to get my garter picture for Angelique as this was my last stop in Laos.

The next day I went for a morning run and then prepared for my bus to Cambodia!