Stray - Pakse to Don Det

The window to our bedroom, which looked out to a brick wall 6 inches away, was missing a pane of glass. This allowed the noise of the heavy rain to fill the room through the night, meaning we got little sleep. After days of good weather it appears we are moving closer to rains that are coming across to meet us from Vietnam.

When we stopped at Wat Phou, an ancient Khymer temple built around the same time as Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the sandstone paving was slick with water and the grass squelched as we walked upon. Thick white cloud hung low off the mountainside, obscuring the temple's upper reaches and creating an eerie atmosphere before us.

We marvelled at the intricate stone masonry still visible in the ruined buildings, the rust of the sandstone coming through in places whilst in others green and white algae were taking over. We stretched to climb up sets of tall steep steps that took us to the top of the temple complex. From there we looked down upon the site and found the profile of an elephant carved into the face of a large boulder as well as the ceremonial block where human sacrifices were lain into the mould of a crocodile before being killed.

Our destination, Don Det, is one of the '4000 Islands' that sit within this part of the Mekong River. Whilst 4000 sounds impressive, bear in mind that this includes islands just big enough for just a small shrub to grow upon it.

To reach our hostel we left the bus and splashed our way through a puddle ridden street and down to the pier, where a tired wooden fishing canoe awaited us and our bags. Tentatively walking along the slippery creaking gangplanks, each of us weighed down by heavy bags, we half-clambered/half-fell into the rocking vessel. With our bags off and crouched down on wet planks, the motor coughed into life and we chugged our way across the powerful current. At the other end, disembarking was no easier with Kim almost tipping overboard under the weight of her bag and the motion of the boat. After this near miss we then had to traverse a sliding gangplank onto the dock. For this we removed our flip flops to gain better grip with our bare feet.

Fortunately after these tests of nerve we were greeted by a large clean bedroom with all the panes of glass included. We spent the evening with what has been our group since Luang Prabang; Jacob, Poppy, Becca and Jade, as they are all 'hopping off' whilst we continue to Cambodia. Tomorrow we will be travelling with a new group who are 'hopping on' from Don Det.Read more