At the Southern tip of Laos the Mekong widens and becomes shallower and full of islands which range massively in size.  Many are uninhabited but there are two which have beome a focus for tourists to visit and enjoy the river, with it’s rapids and waterfalls.  We found this to be a super peaceful place that we didn’t want to leave!

Day 134: Off to see some of the 4000 Islands

After a quick breakfast at the Anouxa, we packed our bags and boarded the boat which turned up at the steps to the river bang on 8.  On board were two other Brits, who have also seen very few other English travellers.  Where are we all? 

The boat across the river was lovely in the early morning light.

We walked the half km to the bus station from the beach.

The transfer to the bus was smooth, with only around ten minutes wait at a café before it arrived.  It was smooth for us anyway, others, including our English friends, had a different coloured ticket and were not allowed to board.  Presumably they’re with another bus company which would be along soon? 

There was loads of room on the bus, which took a couple of hours to travel the flat road to Ban Nakasang.  This route would be beautiful when the rice is green.  Right now it’s just brown stalks after the harvest.  We’ve left the mountains behind now too – the only ones we can see are in Cambodia as we’re very close to the border.

The bus dropped us off and we were pointed down the road to the ferry.  We paused to get some cash out of the ATM as there isn’t one on the island so we needed to carry all our cash for the next few days. 

Arriving at the ticket booth, we bought our tickets and were sent straight down to the docks, where the boat to Don Khon was just pushing out.  They brought it back in for us and we were off. 

This area is so much greener than the rest of Laos, presumably due to the proximity of so much water, and we could immediately see why it is called ‘the 4000 Islands’.

There are tiny, bush covered ‘islands’ everywhere which our boat had to navigate its way through.  Our driver also needed to watch out for the rocks as the water level is very low in places and rocks lurk just under the surface. 

The boat pulled up at the main town area on Don Khon, where we got in a tuktuk thing, more of a motorbike with a sidecar again.  The big bags were stuffed into the back and three of us squished into the little seat with the smaller bags at our feet leaving Chris to ride on the back of the bike. 

There are no roads here, and no cars, so the tracks leading around the island are rough and bumpy.  We had fun bouncing around, wincing on behalf of the poor bike as we went.  Our bags didn’t enjoy the ride as much either and we were flagged down by a café owner who pointed out that one of our bags had fallen off about 50m back.  None of us had noticed!

With the bag back on and held down, we carried on down the bumpy, dusty track to the end of all the buildings and our guesthouse. 

By now it was lunchtime, but rather than chill we decided to walk down the side of the island to some falls where there’s a café and the chance to swim.  The route took us through local communities living along the river.  They didn’t seem overly poor though, the houses are pretty large. 

Unfortunately, the bridge to the falls has fallen apart somewhat and is closed, leaving only the small cascade and pools in the little gorge to play in.  We ate first at the café; simple but it did the job, enjoyed a cold drink and then went for a walk over a bridge to the side in case there was another way across to the falls.  There wasn’t, but the path was fun with lots of rather makeshift bridges!

We headed back to the café and climbed down to the pools, which were a lovely temperature!  The current from the cascades made for some fun swimming as it washed us down stream.  There were a couple of ropes to catch you before the next set of rapids so it was mostly fine.  A new experience for the kids though, who haven’t swum in a current before, especially one this strong! 

We swam for over an hour before making our way home.  After cleaning ourselves up we headed out to another restaurant on the way back into town.  There are so many restaurants and guesthouses on these islands, many of them empty.  A quiet year here too?

Personally, I’m getting a little bored of eating out all the time especially as the food is often slow so you end up spending a couple of hours each time.  Sometimes I feel like this is all we do – sit in restaurants!  I know I shouldn’t complain as surely the alternative of cooking your own food and eating it somewhere without river sunsets is worse, but right now I would love to be self-catered!  Chris and the kids are still enjoying eating out though, it’s just me!  I miss kitchens!

Day 135: Doing nothing on the banks of the Mekong

I’m not quite sure what happened to today!  We were up pretty early, packed a bag for the whole day and headed back to the restaurant from last night for breakfast.  They offer a breakfast which includes ham, orange juice and a fruit salad, which are normally a lot extra here, so we indulged in that before continuing on our way. 

Our guesthouse host had mentioned a kayaking tour which his friend runs, so when we saw the signs we stopped in to ask more.  It’s not cheap, but for what you get it seems like a bargain!  Pickups, breakfast, lunch, a trip to the largest falls in SE Asia, boats to see the endangered river dolphins, and a whole load of kayaking in between.  All for around £15. 

By the time we’d talked about this and booked it, and discussed exchanging kip for USD (we need USD for the visa to Cambodia) and looked at the onwards bus prices, it was 10am and our plan to walk to the far side of the island before it got too hot was well and truly scuppered!  As the tour was going to take us all around the lower part of the island we decided to head back home, chill for the morning, and then come back out for lunch, a few hours at the Li Phi falls and then dinner on the way back. 

The morning was spent sat in the riverside restaurant, doing admin and teaching the kids about graphs (Aiden has asked about them on the walk to breakfast so it seemed like a good thing to do in Maths today – child led learning at its best!).  We had planned to go out when we were hungry, but no one got hungry for a while, and so by the time we’d got ready again, wandered into town, ordered, waited for the food and eaten, it was gone 3.  The entry price is quite steep for these falls so we wanted more than an hour or so there.  Oops.  We deferred the falls again to our last day here and decided to head to the same falls as yesterday for a repeat of the fun. 

The heat continues to dull appetites, so we shared a couple of meals in our room.  Pretty standard dinner procedure these days!

Day 136: Kayaking, waterfalls and dolphins!

We were picked up at 7.50am in a bike tuktuk to the dock, for a boat ride to the top of Don Det. 

Don Det is the neighbouring island, and the most touristy.  The main street from the dock here is entirely restaurants, shops and tour places, with the odd guest house thrown in.  We were directed to a restaurant where we could pick from the menu.  The advantage of a touristy place – they had porridge on the menu!  Glorious oats how I’ve missed you! 

After a leisurely breakfast, we donned our life jackets, grabbed an oar each and pushed off in the kayaks, two to a boat.  The guides were surprised when we said the kids would come with us as they can paddle, but let us go. 

The first part was downstream so pretty easy, with just one section to watch for rocks just under the water.  All pretty easy and fun.  We weren’t too hot on the water either. 

At the end of this paddle we ran aground on another island, and followed a track through a village and down to the Tad Khone Pa Soi Waterfalls.  These are the ones we’d tried to get to the other day, but the bridge was down.  These are great falls, and we were shown the route across under the falls and into the pools below.  There was a bit of a queue to get through, as by now we’d joined up with another tour group doing the same route but with a different company. 

As the last to enter, we didn’t get much time to also swim in the current after the falls.  That may have been a good thing as it was really strong – I could hardly get my feet on the ground and was hanging onto the rocks at the edge for dear life!

We walked further south, to where the kayaks had been brought by road to avoid the falls, and re-boarded.  This time the guides took the kids as we had some ‘large rapids’ to go through.  They hadn’t asked any of us about our kayaking experience, and we certainly had more than the French group with us, so presumed these were large for beginners. 

The rapids awaited us not far around the corner, caused by the large hydroelectric dam which is now there and was releasing some water as we passed. 

I wouldn’t have liked to go through it when the dam was fully open!  The waves were already easily half a metre tall in places.  One went right over my head!  We had to do some evasive manoeuvres to get around a really large one with almost a metre waves, although Aiden informed us afterwards that his guide took him straight through!

There was only one casualty, but it was the boat of one of the guides who had two Koreans (?) with him, as well as the lunch for the other group!  Aiden managed to fish out some bread when him and his guide went past, and someone else saved a watermelon, but the rest was lost! 

We were near the back when they went over and quickly caught up, many of the other boats had already gone past.  We rescued their paddles and went alongside to hold the boat steady whilst they re-boarded.  The guide was up and in immediately, but the other two took a while hauling themselves back in.  All the while we were drifting further down the river, which I hadn’t initially realised was an issue.  Then we passed the other boats moored on the shore 50m away…

With the Koreans (?) back in the boat, we returned their oars and then had to paddle furiously against the current to get back up the river to where the rest of the boats were.  I was glad we had two adults in the boat as it was hard work!  We made it though. 

Time for a well earned break and a little cruise out across the rapids to the pool which sits across the Laos/Cambodia boarder to search for the three remaining Irrawaddy River Dolphins in Laos.  3!!  There were 6 a couple of years ago.  This dolphin is critically endangered, and only found in a few places worldwide.  Gill net fishing and other unknown causes have caused this particular population to be declared ‘functionally extinct’ as they are now too reduced in number to breed successfully.  In a few years they will be gone, especially with the likely introduction of more dams up the river. 

We were unsure how well we’d get to see the dolphins, if at all, but were rewarded with some pretty close up views within five minutes of the boat cutting its engines and drifting into the pool!  We remained for around half an hour, looking out for the surfacing dolphins and were treated to many sightings as they come up regularly, even if it’s not for long at all.  Capturing these guys on camera is a skill and requires some level of foresight.  We only managed to get some distant shots, but they came within 20 feet of the boat so we got a good look at the head and back.  It felt pretty special to see something so rare, and sad to know that they probably won’t be here if I ever come back…

Back on shore the guides had been busily cooking the BBQ.  I think we may have shared our food with the other group as they ended up with the same as us.  Good job we had extras!  The saved watermelon was yum 😊. 

We were on the wrong side of the river for our next stop so it was back in the kayaks to head across, which meant getting back over that strong current again.  One boat grounded on one of the islands, and we thought we were going to hit a couple of times, but Aiden was my reserve.  He was resting until I needed some speed and then he’d jump into action and we’d speed out of the way.  It seemed to take an age to get across, but we made it – phew – some of the most physical kayaking I’ve ever done today!  Chris & Evie managed to power on ahead with no trouble though.  I think Chris enjoys the challenge and wanted to speed over as quickly as possible!

A songthaew was waiting for us on the other side, so after carrying all the kayaks and bits up the bank we hopped in and headed for the Phapheng falls.  These are the largest falls in SE Asia so we were expecting something pretty epic.  It’s a succession of rapids stretching for nearly 10km with the largest falls at around 21m high.  This fall was where we were going.  After a hot walk down to the falls, we were able to pick up a cold drink and some ice creams and spend some time enjoying the view (and I enjoyed chatting to someone about Myanmar).  It was easy to see why this section has been deemed unnavigable after looking at the churning white water. 

Our songthaew seemed to have gone missing so we had to wait at the entrance for a while, which meant we started our kayak from Ban Nakasang rather later than we should.  We were meant to enjoy the sunset from Don Det, but it set whilst we were paddling back over instead. 

We probably could have done without this final paddle, as we were all tired, and the kids largely didn’t paddle, meaning Chris and I had to do all the paddling.  After realising we had missed the sunset I slowed and enjoyed the view though, finishing well at the back. 

The boat back to Don Khone was enjoyable as ever, it’s a beautiful stretch of river, and the setting sun changed the view. 

Suddenly very tired, we ordered dinner at the guesthouse and ate it in our rooms.  Then we passed out in bed.

Day 137: Beaches and sunset on the islands

We intended to get out this morning to the Li Phi falls, but I slept in late after such a busy day yesterday so we didn’t end up having breakfast until 10! 

We had decided to stay one more night in Don Khon, but the guesthouse was full, so we were moving to the rooms that the Laos taste restaurant had.  They were much cheaper and seemed pretty nice.  It’s also closer to the ferry port so we’d have no need for a tuktuk to get there.  Lugging the bags back the half km to our new place was hot work though.  We dropped them off and headed for the river for a swim! 

On the way we passed our tour organiser from yesterday and paid him for the onwards bus journey.  He recommended another beach which is slightly further south than the Li Phi falls where you can swim for free.  The Li Phi falls charge 35,000 kip each, including children apparently, so just to see them and swim there was going to cost us over £10.  Which is a lot by Laos standards.  He also suggested his tour to some other falls and a beach where he could bring his tubes for the children to play in.  A great place for a sunset swim with cold drinks apparently.    At 80,000 kip we went for it and headed off to the beach he’d mentioned for an extra swim first.

There’s a bridge between Don Det and Don Khon which was once part of a railway line from the bottom of Don Khon to the side of Don Det.  Not far from the Don Khon end is an old locomotive once used on the route and the history of the line. 

The short story is that the French really wanted to have gunships up the river to help them control areas further north, back in the days when most these areas where colonies.  They’d tried many times to navigate the river by steamer, but the rapids and falls always thwarted them. So they built this railway line to ship two gunboats, which were dismantled and pulled by hand up the line.  Later the line was improved and locomotives were added to ship goods down from China out to sea.  Eventually a road was built and the line dismantled, but the groundworks remain as a track for locals and tourists on bikes. 

It was a hot walk out in the heat of the day of a couple of km to the beach area, but it was worth it.  A really beautiful setting with a café, lots of burning hot sand and rocky coves and bays with longtail boats in them. 

We found a lovely cove with an easy entry into a calm pool with the current of the river just to the side which we could use as a swimming treadmill.  To get there we had to walk past a naked French couple and then we were alone initially until a group of young Germans turned up and joined us.  Perhaps I would have been bothered that they’d chosen our nice peaceful spot when there was so much river to go around in a past life.  But nothing can bother me here!  There’s room for everyone 😊.

After a joyous hour frolicking in the waters, we needed to start heading back to get lunch and then our sunset tour. 

We didn’t make it past the café though as the cool drinks were calling us and the Germans all had a fresh coconut which they recommended.  Having been in SE Asia and not had a coconut yet I felt it was time!

There were chicks running around everywhere to the delight of the kids, who of course named them all and were trying to catch them and pick them up.  With the stunning backdrop this seemed like an excellent place for lunch too. 

As a final day treat we let the kids have pancakes and fruit shakes with a shared curry rice, all of which was delicious.  Time for the hot walk back to the town to board our sunset boat.

We ended up being the only people on this tour, so it was our guide, the two tubes and us in the longtail boat up the river.  Always a lovely trip.  This time we headed on north past Don Det.

I’m not sure if I imagined him saying there were waterfalls, or assumed it as I’d read about some, but there weren’t any.  Instead, we stopped on a small sandbar in the river, which had two bars, one with many local people, and the other with a load of drunk Westerners playing drinking games.  Each was playing its own conflicting music and the water was a bit shallow where we were for swimming.  Initially I was disappointed. 

Our spot wasn’t so bad in the end though, Chris and the kids floated in the tubes, and then a whole load of local kids joined in.  The river was perfect for this as it was really shallow so they were never out of their depth and could frolic to their hearts content. 

Whilst Chris enjoyed his beer and the kids played with their new friends, I was enjoying a pretty epic sunset on the side with the bar.  Someone was actually crying at it, but she was at least drunk, and possibly high so she may not have been the best indicator…

Once the sun was gone it was time to head back – we had a fair amount of island filled river to navigate before it got properly dark…  The kids did not want to leave, but were good about it as always.  The sky on the way back was amazing, and turned the Mekong liquid gold.  A perfect goodbye from the river and these super islands.

Getting back got a little hairy as the light was nearly gone by the time we reached the difficult part!  The kids were practicing their brace pose (I’m not sure how that would have helped though) and we tied and clipped bottles and clothes to the dry bag, just in case.  I think these guys know the river like the back of their hands though as they do this all the time, so he got us safely home. 

What had started off as a morning out had become a whole day – phew!

Time to leave Laos tomorrow, which we’ll be sad to do as it has been so relaxing here.  Hopefully Cambodia will be great too!  First stop Siem Reap and Angkor Wat (coming soon). Or head back to the other Khmer temple of Wat Phu in Champassak.