don khong. laos. january 28th – 31st. 2009

We have decided to visit a national park on the way to Don Khong and spend a night there first – doing  a home stay. The infrastructure to arrange this from Champasak is either expensive or non-existent, so we join another couple at the main road and try to flag down a ride. A bus finally stops and takes as a short distance to the road that leads into the park, where we quickly discover that arranging transport the remaining 7km, not so simple. Hot sun, dusty crossroads, few buildings, language barrier, exorbitant - relative to usual transport costs, even taxi fare and no reservation arranged, we shortly decided to just continue our journey to Don Khong and forgo the park. But we are really at a sparsely populated crossroads in the middle of nowhere. It is noon and as I am loosing hope a truck finally stops and we negotiate a ride onward. There are a few other foreigners aboard as well and thankfully two of them are going to the same island we are, as we again are dropped at a crossroads, even less populated then the last. We walk wearily in the mid day sun, each with our full packs for 2km or so before we find the water, A lone boatman waiting to take us across to the island. Thankful to have reached our destination, we check in to a quiet hostel with a lovely feel and a pretty big room as the past few entries, it is SMALL here, and really calm, laid back and serene. We spend the time observing river life not far from the boat landing and the handful of restaurants. Our plan here? To bike around the island, which takes a day with a break from the noon sun, but Stephen gets sick, so we see little else but the area we are in. It is really lovely here though, and there is no need to do much other then rest in our room, eat and watch the Mekong. Stephen recovers in a couple of days and we decide to move on. I am glad he did as we are with each stop further and further from being able to find medical help if we need it. (this is of course Stephens’ cue to get sick). In retrospect, I can appreciate the experiences much more, but at the time Laos was wearing thin.

our don khong photos on flickr

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