Ban Houadondét

Our final stop in Laos was Si Phan Don ('Four Thousand Islands'). Here, the Mekong fragments into a delta of—you guessed it—4,000 islands, before flowing into Cambodia.

After a 4-hour bus from Pakse and a short ferry, we landed at our target island: Don Det. The hotel we’d been recommended was closed, the troubled-looking German owner ranting about his misfortunes. We beat a hasty retreat to the Crazy Gecko. This was an apt name, because their outdoor lighting attracted enough insects to feed the entire gecko population of Laos.

The tourist season is very much over, with most guesthouses and restaurants in hibernation, the proprietors confused that you might want to give them money for a bottle of water. But this did mean we had the island almost entirely to ourselves to enjoy, although admittedly in oppressive heat. It is even cheaper this far south: our family-sized ensuite room cost £10/night, and we rented bicycles for £1/day to see the ‘old port’ (broken down concrete structures that could be 100 or 5 years old). Beer Lao was less than £1/pint.

On our last day in Laos, Chelsea went for a full day kayaking tour around the islands, leaving Dan to read and write. A large section of the trip was completed on a tractor, which is about as quick as walking but more rattling, and advisable only if you don’t want to carry your kayak from one side of an island to another. There are many waterfalls in this part of the Mekong: the largest in Asia by volume is Khone Pha Pheng, though thankfully Chelsea was not required to kayak through it.

She drifted past Cambodian military posts on the border and took a sneaky pic, although we suspect that the blue tarp shack will not yield much in the way of military intelligence. There was a particularly unfit couple on the kayak tour, sharing one kayak while Chelsea was paired with the guide, Soot. It became clear that they had never kayaked before. Ahead of a tough stretch, the guide asked Chelsea to switch kayaks and take the ‘big man’ for the rapids, while the guide piloted his wife. Chelsea took the back seat and thus found herself acting as both power and steering through grade 2/3 rapids while our hero lay on his back in the front seat. Her arms ache today.

Meanwhile, Dan spent all day relaxing at the dubiously named ‘Torture Bar’—an agonising afternoon drinking iced lemon tea and watching the river flow by. Don Det was also the spot where we finally had a chance to swim in the Mekong, after spending three weeks travelling along it.

Don Det felt like a fitting finale for our Lao adventures. Like everywhere in Laos, it sits on the Mekong River but still manages to be extremely hot. It is astonishingly cheap; we spent around £40-50 per day for two people (our average for all of Laos was £80/day, which is the cheapest country we've visited by a good margin). It was mostly empty of tourists and you had to go on a determined crusade to get any customer service. But that aside, it is (along with Indonesia) our favourite country in Southeast Asia so far; much more laid-back and authentic than Thailand especially! Our three weeks here have been great, and we'd highly recommend it to anyone thinking about a visit—we have plenty of notes to share 🤩

Next up, Cambodia 🇰🇭➡️Read more