Where are Tinus and Barrie?

So, after almost three weeks in Cambodia we arrived in our second Asian county of our trip: the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, or Laos for short. Even though it’s not so democratic, with the only legal party the communist one, and with not so many people (only 6.5 million).

Our bungalow in Don Khon

Boat from Don Khon

Tinus loves kitties

Our first stop: Don Khon (not to be confused with nearby Don Khong), part of the 4000 islands, a group of small islands near the Cambodian border famous for, well, not so much except as a place to relax and gaze into the Mekong river. It was quite a feat getting there, because after dark the boat only goes to nearby Don Det, a ‘backpacker party island’ where every dish can be made ‘happy’ (e.g., with marijuana) and the bars stay open until, wait for it, midnight (that’s 6 am in Lao terms). Fortunately we could arrange a tuk-tuk that took us on a bumpy road in the pitch black dark to the other island were we got some rest in our bamboo bungalow, next to the river.

Our first Lao experience was, well, pretty relaxed. Don Khon was deserted (we had multiple occasions where we were the only guests in the restaurant), although August should be ‘high season’ in Laos. Apparently not so on Don Khon. So we mostly cycled and walked around the island (the waterfalls were pretty nice), read books, and drank fruit shakes.

Even Don Det, although having the reputation of being the ‘party island’, was very quiet and pretty much free of the hordes of “happy pizza” eating backpackers we expected. So it was in this relaxed state that we left the island after three days to head to Pakse, the largest city in southern Laos.

Beer that makes all Lao proud: Beerlao

Pakse river view

When all other possible amusement options fail: go bowling

The Pakse market

Don’t throw garbage

View from the top of Vat Phou

Pakse isn’t that much different from Don Khon in terms of business, everyone seems to have gone for vacation and it can be a little bit of a struggle to find a restaurant that isn’t empty. Still, we’ve seen some interesting sights here, including  the market (the largest in Laos, so we’ve been told).

Today we rented a motorbike and made a daytrip to Vat Phou (or Wat Phu), the most important antique site in Laos and an UNESCO world heritage site. It’s a temple complex built during the same time as the temples in Angkor, and we saw various well-known motifs that we also saw in Cambodia.

The complex itself is not that interesting, but the location is very pretty: located on a hill we got wonderful views of the surrounding countryside. Definitely worth the 1-hour trip. Nearby Champasak, a ‘place you can easily stay for a couple of days’ according to the Lonely Planet, proved to be a little less interesting because we couldn’t find the spa, Italian restaurant or anything else the ‘LP’ recommended for that matter.

Tomorrow we’re going to take the night bus to the Lao capital, Vientiane, were we’ll hopefully find a little bit more of the ‘real Lao’ then we found here.