Si Pan Don (4000 Islands)

Well after a rocky start the sleeper bus was actually OK. It wasn't our best night sleep but we were able to nap in parts. Will couldn't fit in the bed so it was a bit of a squeeze. We arrived into Pakse and decided to keep moving south and just spend our last week in Si Pan Don instead of constantly travelling. With sour cream onion pringles and chocolate biscuits (actually turned out to be chocolate covered jelly) for breakfast we jumped straight onto the next bus to Si Pan Don. When we arrived we saw a few familiar faces including the lovely Didi and Leo! It was great to see them even just for the short couple of minutes. They were starting their journey to Cambodia. There are so many scams with regards to the border crossing so I'm really not looking forward to this part of the journey!

We took a lovely boat ride to Don Khon and then checked into our bungalow. We were absolutely starving, luckily on our journey in we tagged a couple of places we wanted to eat. So first stop was a local Tamil owned Indian restaurant. I've been craving home cooked for a while and this hit the spot!

The next day we had the day off to just read our books, begin learning Vietnamese and enjoy sunset on the tip of Don Det.

As we had a really lazy day, today we decided to have the complete opposite. We were up and out by 6am and hired bicycles by 6:15am! We cycled for half an hour, seeing some of sun rise and caught a private boat to see the Irawaddy Dolphins. Irawaddy Dolphins are salt water dolphins and not usually found in fresh water rivers but this part of the Mekong River has 3 of the species left. It was really beautiful and such a lovely start to the day, we saw all 3 dolphins only a couple of meters away.

We then cycled around the island to see various viewpoints, beaches and waterfalls. It got to about 12pm and the heat was getting quite intense and we were starving as hadn't had breakfast so we went for brunch. We spent the afternoon cycling around Don Det, the connecting islands, and finished the day with a well deserved dinner!

For our final day we decided to plan our big move onto Cambodia and relax before the hectic time ahead travelling across the border and in Siem Reap. The 4000 islands are really lovely and relaxed, definitely not to be missed when visiting Laos!Read more