Chillaxing on the hippy island Don Det, Si Phan Don, Laos

8-12 April 2013

After our exhausting 16hr journey to Laos, we arrived on the tranquil island of Don Det (one of the 4000 islands in the middle of the Mekong). Our new German friend, Bea, wanted to head out and have a few drinks as it was her birthday the next day. After finding accommodation we started off with a couple of beer Lao's at 'Melina's bar, restaurant and guesthouse'. Every single place to eat along the island was also a bar and a guesthouse. It was dark so we couldn't see the Mekong but we knew the bars were set up over it. They were all made out of bamboo with cushions and small tables to relax around. Sam and I had to stay at 'Happy bar' down the dirt rd a littler further as there weren't enough air conditioned bungalows for us all.

4000 Islands

After eating our first amazing meals in Laos (seriously, the food was so good!), we realized we were being kicked out because of the 11.30pm curfew that exists all over the communist country. Literally everything closes down, every bar, every restaurant, every shop. It was ok this night though as we were all exhausted and needed sleep desperately. Everyone decided to follow us to Happy Bar to see what that place was about and on the way we met this strange kiwi. He ended up joining our group of the next few days and had us all in fits of laughter most of the time. You wouldn't know when he was being sarcastic and full of shit because he never showed any emotion in his expressions - he was so damn good at it that he fooled all of us at least on one occasion. Me many times haha.

Our crew

The next day when I woke up and went outside, I was blown away by the beauty and tranquility of the island. I walked down a little further to see if I could find some different accom as our room at Happy Bar was terrible. The sheets looked like sweat and semen all dried up. It was foul. I found all the restaurants and bars set up over the water with a very relaxed atmosphere. They were all the same type of wood built over the water with cushions and mats to sit around the tables. We met up with the group for breakfast where the Aussie girls said we could have their bungalow as they were planning to leave that day. They weren't even supposed to be on this island with us but after arriving so late into Laos there was no option. They had accommodation booked on the largest island which was still another 1.5hr boat ride away. After Sam and I relocated to our new bungalow we met up with the group again and all hired bicycles. The girls then told us they couldn't go to the other island today as they have already missed the only boat which left at 11am. So they moved to the non air con bungalow next to us. We then all rode to the end of Don Det which is a very small island - it didn't take long. We had to cross a bridge to get to the second most popular island, Don khon. It was here that we found our waterfall and 'beach' to relax and swim. I met this girl called Sam and her friends who told us to come to the 'Reggae Bar' that night and follow everyone down to the 'beach' when curfew hits as they set up a bonfire to sit around, chat and finish their drinks. Girl Sam told me it only usually goes for about an hr before people die off to bed. She then invited us to join her and others tomorrow on a sandy beach for drinks before tubing back to the island in the sunset. Sounded like a solid day to me!

Crossing the bridge to Don Khon

Cycling on Don Khon to the Waterfalls

On the ride back to Don Det, birthday girl Bea had an unfortunate accident. Her bike was faulty and the tire stopped dead which resulted in her going over the handlebars and crashing to the ground. It looked nasty and she was in a bit of shock but luckily no broken bones, just very sore. Her travel buddy Matt (from Emgland) then walked with her and their bikes slowly back to the guesthouse while the rest of us (2 Aussie girls Maria & Katie, Kiwi Matt and Sam and I) decided to ride back the sunrise side of the island instead (we were staying on the sunset side). We ended up stopping at a bar for beer on the way which made us the last ones to arrive in the end.

Namkhong (Mekong in Laos) - best beer in this country!

That night Bea was desperate for us all to find this German restaurant with a real German chef on the sunrise side of the island. It took us about an hr to get there as it was so far away - not what any of us was expecting! Still, it was totally worth it as the food was divine. I can't even remember the name of the dish I got but it was so amazing that I'm going to try find it back in Aus. It was really nice having dinner there with everyone as we drank many beer Laos, ate amazing German food and then had to shot the horrible 'Lao Lao' (local whiskey) as the German owner gave them to us for free for Bea's birthday. He also organized the most amazing desert of my life. It looked like chocolate eclairs but way better then that! They melted in your mouth and even Sam loved them with the chocolate - he hates chocolate!

The amazing German dish I had - strips of beef in a creamy mushroom sauce

Bea, birthday girl! And her amazing melt in your mouth desert

We didn't manage to make it to Reggae Bar in time to meet our new friends from earlier that day but we just head for the so called 'beach' and found everyone there anyway. It's where all the boats come and leave from and there is a sandy beach type area but the water is the Mekong river so I don't think it can be really classed as a beach. There was quite a crowd gathered round the fire all drinking and talking and singing - everyone was feeling pretty merry. Slowly one by one everyone went to bed and soon it was just a small few of us talking with just the coals burning next to us. What a lovely way to end each day.

The next day the Aussie girls had to leave as they needed to get to the main island for their last night before catching a flight in the morning up North. It was sad seeing part of our crew leave, as Kiwi Matt was one of them. At least we still had Bea and English Matt! And what a day we had. It was pretty lazy up until about 3pm when the tubing, island cruise thing finally got under way. Still it was a perfect way to spend an afternoon/evening. The event was being run by this stoner Jamaican looking guy who actually sounded American. He pretty much spent the whole time rolling joints and passing them around. Sam and I never did see these joints pass through us though, there was just too many people.

The sandy beach down the Mekong

We began on a sandy beach somewhere down the Mekong where we had free whiskey mixers, chilled out with some music and they even tried to get us involved in games. The four of us didn't want to and we just relaxed in the water laughing at all the others trying to make human pyramids and failing. Sadly we didn't have enough time and soon they were telling us to get back in the boats as it was now time for tubing! This was a great way to finish off. They drove us to a certain point and then we all got tubes to float the rest of the way to the island as the sun set. What a fantastic idea.

For dinner we ran straight for this tiny rib stand run by an American guy that we had been eying off for days. Sam and Matt in particular would not shut up about it so we had decided tonight was the night for these ribs! Sadly, even though we got there at 7.30pm (he opens at 6) there wasn't enough ribs for us all, so Bea and Matt missed out... We tried to argue with them as Sam and I had an extra night while they were leaving but they did not want us to give up our ribs. They did get all the leftover gravy sauce crap in the bottom of the pot which actually was pretty god damn good soaked in bread. Omg thinking about those ribs now is making my mouth water.

Sam, Bea and Matt all died after that and wanted an early night while I was all happy drunk and keen to hit the reggae bar. We had picked up this random German guy while tubing so he followed me to the bar and we kicked on. What a bloody great idea! We shared a joint together and with some others around the table but he soon  ditched me and moved to the other side of the bar. Once I was alone however I started making loads of friends and talking to soo many different people. I had such a great time socializing and even ended up in a bet by some European. I had been in Laos a mere 3days and had been drinking Namkhong beer which is new but tastes sooo much better then beer Laos. So I was arguing this with the European and he was telling me that I wouldn't even know the difference if I had both beers in front of me in plastic cups. I said I would so off he went down the street to find Namkhong as they didn't sell it at this bar. Soon I was presented with two plastic cups full of beer. By this stage I had switched to spirits because I was quite drunk and now stoned that I had gone off the taste of beer entirely. This did not help my case as I took one sip from each cup and sat there confused. So I took one more sip of each - ah ha! The second one tasted way better, it must be Namkhong, and I was right! my prize was a free beer. If I got it wrong I was going to have to buy that guy a beer instead. It was funny because everyone around the table were all watching and waiting to see what I said. It was such a good feeling to prove that guy wrong. Beer Laos is not the worst beer in the world but it's so watery it has no flavour so you need to drink it ice cold to enjoy it which is a rare commodity here in Laos. However Namkhong actually has real taste. It's a really good beer.

Sunset from Melina's (our accommodation bar/restaurant)

When the reggae bar closed down I tracked down the German guy again and we shared another joint down by the beach. It seemed like way more people had come down to the bonfire tonight. They must have just arrived today. There were boatloads of people arriving and leaving every day. For such a tiny relaxed island it had a lot of comings and goings.

I got back to my bungalow very drunk, stoned and just a teensy bit off balance that I crashed into every piece of furniture in the room. Luckily Sam wasn't actually asleep. He was laughing at me instead.

One of the bars along the sunset side

The next day as we were seeing Bea and Matt off we were greeted by the famous water buffalo! I forgot to mention but after I met female Sam and her friends down by the waterfall that day she was telling us about this buffalo that was so friendly you could get right up close to him, cuddle, stroke, kiss - even straddle him! Although he did get a hard on for her and she ran off screaming. Imagine a massive water buffalo trying to mount you. He hangs out down at the 'beach' where everyone comes and gos and the bonfire at night is. So as we were seeing our friends off we were lucky enough to find him in our presence. It was soo cool! We ran back to our room to change into swimmers and decided to go swimming with him which is definitely a highlight of the whole trip so far! We got some awesome pictures.

Our new friend on Don Det

The rest of the day was very chilled as Sam and I were now on our own and he was super sick. That was the reason he went home to bed early the night before. He had a super high temp that freaked me out. I felt his skin and it was burning hot. I went down to Happy Bar for a Happy pizza which was so big I couldn't even finish it. I was trying to read my magazine on our balcony when all of a sudden I couldn't focus anymore and it got harder and harder to read. I got extremely high from that bloody pizza. So high that I had to lay down and just watch shows on my laptop and struggled to even follow them. Every now and again I would lean over to feel Sam and check he was breathing as his temperature was so high he probably should've gone to hospital.

Our Bungalow for a measly $7.50

One time I turned over and he was lying flat on his back, his mouth was open and his eyes were open and he wasn't moving at all. For a moment there I actually believed he was dead. Panic struck so hard I jumped over and touched his chest, then he turned to face me and instantly I was relived. It was probably the paranoia of how stoned I was but I really thought he was dead. I never want that feeling ever again.

Melina's, where we stayed, ate and drank

Sam finished my pizza and got pretty high with me then we decided to have our last dinner at Melina's except I ran off and got us some ribs as well - yum!. We booked a boat and bus to Pakse for the next day. Time to move on from Don Det as much as we didn't want to...

Leaving Don Det by boat