Leap froging cities in search of the islands

I am currently writing this sitting in a hammock outside my bungalow right on the edge of the Mekong river. I'm not going to lie, I didn't see the sunrise, that's on the other side of the island, I get the sunsets. The small island that I am on is called Don Dhet and it is in the far south of Laos known as the 4000 islands. The hardest decision I've had to make so far today is which of my two hammocks to lay in: one is a little more tatter but it's closer to the river. Alright, I'll wipe the smug grin off my face; I'm going to be returning relatively soon and can directly feel the consequences by perturbed parties.

The last few days have been a fairly fevered leap frog of destinations. The first two nights were spent in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, and I really don’t have much good to say about the city. It didn't have much vibe, it was expensive, the Wats weren't that interesting, and even the Patuyai - a Laos take on the arc de triumph - and that Luang - the national monument - were a little run down with even less character. As someone who has loved almost everywhere else in Laos I don't think I would go back if it could be avoided. The Buddha park and big lake outside of the city are supposed to be nice but they are quite far and the city doesn't leave you with much desire to see them.

From Vientiane we jumped a night bus to Savannkhet. I saw we because I was traveling with my minimum traveling requirement: two Canadian girls. The VIP bus down to Savannkhet was another rough ride. I may have said this before but do not take the VIP busses if you can avoid it, especially if there are lower seats. Once again Karaoke played at ear piercing levels most of the night only this time we were crammed on the lower level where if I sat up straight my head touched the ceiling. The VIP buses being slightly faster also tend to get in to their destinations at 5am which means you have between 1-3 hour before you can get food and a guesthouse. The only possible advantage of a VIP bus is that you MIGHT get a toilet and the seats are a little more comfy, but it isn't worth the trade off in my eyes.

Anyway, I digress, we arrived in Savannakhet at 5am and because we were so early opted to walk into town to find a guesthouse. The tricky thing of course when you first get into town is you don't really know which direction is which. Luckily, the sun was starting to rise so with lonely planet ‘objects-on-this-map-are-much-further-away-than-they-appear’ in hard we set out on our way. Much to the girls disbelief I was actually able to find the guesthouse we were looking for. This was made more difficult by the total lack of sleep and the fact that none of the streets were labeled so we did overshoot by a couple blocks the first attempt but hey, we had all of the time in the world to get it right. After finally finding a suitable guesthouse - the first was full - we all collapsed for a good little nap. After I woke the dead we set out for the tourist office and the dinosaur museum. Sadly the trek we really wanted to do was closed for the rainy season and the dino museum was one room with some fossils. I suppose if you had never seen real bones before it could be neat, you did get to actually touch a fossil, but on a whole it is skippable. Then came the big decision, to head out later that night for Champasak or in the morning. Much debate was had, but in the end the need for some sleep won out and we jumped on the bus the next morning.

Getting on the local bus I slept like a baby for a good hour. I really can't tell you why I sleep better on 3rd class busses and trains but apparently I do. By the end of the trip though my back was quite sore and patience was worn a little thin by the arms jabbing me from both sides: one from a person on a stool in the isle and the other from a twitchy sleeper to my right. After the bus we then took a tuk tuk to a ferry to take us over the river to Champasak. The first thing we all noticed upon getting off (our party now included two English girls as well) was that no one was waiting for us when get got off the boat. No hawkers, no tuk tuks, no nothing. This must be a laid back town. The one problem with this lovely reprieve was that we didn't actually know where to go now. We of course took out our trusted lonely planet but as it turns out the map in it was wrong. For whatever reason the ferry dock been moved further out of town. The result is when we came to the first guesthouse we thought we were totally lost as it was supposed to be on the other side of town. Luckily better slept minds prevailed and we came to the conclusion that the map must be wrong and plodded bravely onwards towards what we hoped was town. Finally, we wound up getting picked up by a guesthouse owner on a motor bike and stayed there to chill by the river. The major draw to Champasak is wat phou and we rented bikes the net day to head out to it. It is very much worth the stop. Basically it is a smaller barely touristed Angkor Wat. Perhaps it isn't as nice, I haven't been to Angkor yet but it is breathtaking in its own ways and I'd recommend the trip.

Sadly after visiting the Wat our party had to split ways. The English girls just wanted to dip their toes on a closer island and the Canadians wanted to head off to Vietnam so that was the end of our journeying together. After a quick goodbye I tore off on the bike on my way to try and catch a bus which would hopefully allow me to catch one of the last ferries to Don Det. After a speedy bike ride, a very kind lift from the guesthouse owner to the river, ferry ride, a motor bike taxi back to the road, I was able to catch a Sawngthaw (a bigger tuk tuk) stuffed full of 26 other people which took me to the ferry allowing me to get to where I am now.

Now I've come full circle back to me sitting in a hammock chilling out for a few days. I've got some more to say but I'll save the heartbroken Norwegian for later, it's breakfast time.