We stayed in a lovely, relaxing bungalow for more reasons that simply having somewhere nice to stay, it also meant we could take some time out to relax and write. So on this day we managed to catch up on Cambodia and wrote whilst sitting across from the little island we swam out to the day before and would again voyage out to later that day. We took a break for lunch and ventured up to one of the restaurants a little further up the sunset strip from us in the Don Khon direction. We found a great place with many people sat chatting away so we thought we’d join them for a while. One guy in particular was chatting to us about the Olympus Pen camera and discussing the delights of traveling for a year, he also had a link with Helen’s family having worked at SCOPE for 10 years in the campaigns department, he’d dealt with her great Aunt Hilda several times (this alone is a massive ask in itself) and knew of the late Chris Davies (her son) very well indeed. A small world this is! So we enjoyed some great pumpkin burgers, tasty fruit shakes and good chat before returning to our little shack to inspire further writing.

A much anticipated and refreshing swim was calling as the heat was very intense indeed, so we ended our writing stint, swam and sunbathed and then got ready to enjoy a Valentines night at The Veggie Patch restaurant. We enjoyed a lovely evening with some of the best food we’ve eaten yet on our travels!! We enjoyed a fine feast of Pumpkin Gnocchi with an aubergine and tomato sauce, salad and fresh bread accompanied by free cocktails all evening. We also bought a piece of chocolate cake which was pretty delicious too! They had a few games out and we sat and chatted to others enjoying the food and location. The Veggie Patch is well hidden down on the sunset side with no other restaurants or bungalows around and the owners from France and Australia are very lovely indeed. They spend a lot of time preparing each dish for the day as well as tending to their much loved vegetable patches. We spent most of the evening there until closing and then made our way over to a beach party back on the small beach at the tip of Don Det, it wasn’t however that great so we just decided to make our way back to our little hut.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

The journey from Kratie to the border crossing was very smooth indeed. We chose the option of a mini-van ticket for $14 each, this picked us up at 8am along with a few other passengers and continued onto Stung Treng for an hour and a half where we were picking up the bigger bus to the border. We only had one hiccup in the form of a flat tyre which occurred due to a big wooden stake going right through it! This delayed us by 20 minutes or so but to our surprise and relief the bus was waiting for us on the highway and so on we hopped and off to the border we went.

It took a further 45 minutes to get to the border crossing at Trabaeng Kriel and around an hour to get through an leave on the other side. The main problem we encountered was the request for extra dollars on exit and entry sides, they say its for the admin, some say its for the stamp so we had an extra 4$ each to pay on top of our visa fee. The visa fee is another thing to mention here, we previously thought we needed to get our visas issued in Cambodia as had read that there were no crossings from Cambodia to Laos where you can get a visa on arrival. Whilst in Phnom Penh we spent $45 each on a Loas visa, however this border does now issue visas on arrival and we could have saved around $8 each, it’s not too much in the whole scale of things but a little premature on our part all the same.

So after a few bribes we sat on the bus for around half an hour before setting off to Ban Nakasang where we picked up a boat over to Don Det Island part of the 4000 Islands. All transfers and boat trips were included in the bus ticket from Kratie, even though they don’t write anything on the ticket it’s like an unspoken deal, money just goes from one driver to the next with the last person being the boat driver. It only took 20 minutes if that to get to Don Det and then we were in Laos at the 4000 Islands. We walked down the sunrise side to start with as we’d read that it is a good option in the Lonely Planet but already bungalows were getting busy and the one’s we liked the best we already full. We opted for a cheap 30,000 kip bungalow which was pretty basic, wood, a window, a mosquito net and a very hard bed, the river below had seen better days too, so we decided we’d do one night here and later on go on a search for somewhere more comfortable and a little more of what we had in mind. This didn’t take very long as we found a lovely group of turquoise painted bungalows next door to Mr B’s sunset bungalow resort. They were full that night so we endeavored to come back the next morning and see what we could get.

So with that in our minds we went for some cake at the Australian Bakery on the sunrise side and then walked around the perimeter of the Island taking in the sunset as we did. It’s not that big an Island and it’s very easily navigated by bikes, the paths are dry and sandy and you get good views along the way. We made it back to our guesthouse and proceeded to head out for dinner choosing the Mama Tanon Cafe for a relatively well priced meal.

The next day we went back over to our choice of accommodation and as we got there two girls were checking out of a bungalow looking right over the Mekong river, this would be perfect. We managed to reserve the room, went back to collect our bags and then moved into the new shack. This was much better, with two hammocks, the bungalow itself was detached with a private balcony, the bed was much more comfortable and the mosquito net less scanty. We decided we’d stay an extra 2 nights on Don Det.

We rented a bike for the day from the guesthouse at 8000kip for a days rental, we set off for Don Khon and were surprised by the 20,000 kip fee to cross over the bridge from one Island to the other. A tourist fee…the locals only have to pay 5,000 kip each. We cycled the route most traveled by tourists in the area and made our way to the Li Phi waterfalls having to pay a further parking fee for the bikes, the ticket to the Island does cover the cost of getting into the waterfall though. The falls are impressive even during the dry season however you cannot get that close to them, for safety reasons, but it would be nice to feel some watery fury. We stopped for some lunch, a rest from the sun and had ordered some fresh spring rolls with sticky rice as we were rather low on money. They tasted really good and we were both equally impressed.

After collecting the bikes from the makeshift car park we headed towards the beach. You can head towards an area where you can get a boat to go dolphin spotting or as we decided, ride to the end of the island and see what was there. A great view across of the Mekong greeted us. We rode back to Don Det and headed into the river for a cooling dip, swimming across to a sandbank island and then watch the sunset from our little bungalow. Evening meal was Indian cuisine at a cheap restaurant on the high street not far from the landing beach of the boats, make sure you are there before 6.30pm as it gets very busy and waiting times can be as long as 1.5hrs! The food was cheapish and fairly good value, portion sizes are modest with a good selection of naan breads.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)