We’re back in the land of decent internet connections! Thank you all for your comments and emails, we really appreciate hearing from you. We are most definitely safe and well out of the way of the tsunami and after effects. We feel very lucky that it didn’t happen six weeks earlier when we were in the area.
We are concerned for Karen and Olivier (from Ireland and France), who we met on the Halong Bay trip and again in Saigon, as they were heading that way to dive. Unfortunately we’ve lost their email addresses so if you happen to check in here please let us know you’re ok. (And we want to visit you in Paris!)
We’ve covered quite a lot of ground since Phnom Penh so get comfy – this could be long.
First stop was Kratie which was extremely peaceful and relaxing after Phnom Penh. We had a great room for $3 in a practically new hotel overlooking the Mekong. The sunsets were fantastic. We spent two nights in Kratie and on the afternoon of the second day we went with four other people to see the Irrawaddy dolphins. We all had a moto and driver and rode in convoy to Kampi, abut half an hour away.
At Kampi we got in a boat and went dolphin spotting. We saw a few but not very closely. They are much shyer than ocean dolphins. We then sat on the bank and watched the sunset – another fabulous one!
Back in town we went out for dinner with the other dolphin watchers. It was nice to have some other people to talk with! We also managed to see a bit about the tsunami on CNN at the restaurant and in the hotel foyer.
The next afternoon we caught a big air-conditioned speed boat up the Mekong to Stung Treng. There is not a lot to see in Stung Treng, though Dave enjoyed checking out the water works. We stayed here one night and the next morning got a small zippy speedboat to the Laos border.
This boat trip involved sitting two across with our knees up round our chins and our fingers in our ears to block the noise of the engine. The trip to the border took about an hour. Cambodian immigration is on one side of the river and they charged $2 each for the privilege of leaving. Across the river is the Laos entry point which took a little searching for. They charged us $1 each for the stamp.
At the border we met an Australian named Brett who works in Canberra for the same department I used to work for in Sydney and Brisbane. He decided to follow along with us to Don Det. To get there we got a saengthaw from the border to a town called Nakasang and from there a small boat.
Don Det is an island that is part of the ‘Four Thousand Islands’ area of Laos. The Mekong here is at its widest and forms many islands. We found a great little bungalow overlooking the river with its own little verandah and best of all it cost only $1.50. We have a new lowest room price record!
Don Det was very relaxing and we spent three nights there. It has no electricity (not even by generator where we were) so at night was quiet with only the noise of the river flowing by and insects. No noisy horns and motorbikes!
We hired bicycles and rode around both Don Det and Don Khon which is connected by an old railway bridge built by the French. The rest of the time we ate and lazed in hammocks. Lovely! We were here for New Years Eve but only managed to stay awake till after midnight Australian time.
From Don Det we got a small boat north to another island, Don Khong. Don Khong is bigger and has 24hr electricity but it lacks the charm of Don Det. We again hired bikes and rode around the island about 25km. On the way back to town about 5km out my bike broke so Dave kindly pushed it back and I rode his along slowly. We got many sympathetic looks from the locals.
Next stop was Champasak which we got to by getting on the Pakse bound bus from Don Khong. The bus was so full we sat on little plastic stools down the aisle and I was half on one and half on another with a view of a box full of pretty looking birds all wrapped up in gauze.
We got off the bus on the main road at the junction to Champasak and hitched a ride in the back of a truck with a few watermelons rolling around. The truck took us the couple of kilometres down to the ferry crossing and was heading to Champasak so we stayed on it and got a lift into town.
Champasak was a gorgeous one-street town along the Mekong with lots of old French buildings in various states of disrepair. We stayed two nights here and got back on the bikes (after carefully checking them this time) to ride out to Wat Phu.
Wat Phu is a Khmer era temple and was similar to the ones we saw at Angkor. It rises in three levels up the side of a mountain and symbolises going up to heaven as the stairs get harder to climb. It is being restored by UNESCO and there were archaeologists at work plus a brand new museum built by the Japanese government.
This morning we got on a saengthaew for the one and a half hour ride to Pakse. I had a great seat on a bag of rice. Pakse seems nice enough though quiet. We have hot water for the first time since Saigon! We also found somewhere to buy some more deodorant, toothpaste and shampoo as our stocks were low.
Tomorrow we will go to Tadlo Falls on the Bolaven Plateau and stay there 2 or 3 nights before going on to Savannahket.
Happy New Year!
