Don Det and Don Khon

MORE PICTURES OF Don Det and Don Khon 2007

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The ferry from Nakasan "per $1 per person per trip (apologies to Stanley Holloway) dropped us off on a nice little beach, in front of the Noun Riverside Restaurant, a perfect place to chill or as a landing spot for tube runs.  At night 'Noun' is a fun hangout, the nearest thing to night life on the islands

Young travellers had advised us to go to Don Kohn as that's where the old folk go.  So naturally we came to Don Det.  Souksan Bungalows at $8 a night was a mistake, it was a construction zone and we took an instant dislike to the owner who spent all her time screaming at her sweet young staff. Time to move on.  There are plenty of budget options in family compounds for $2 a night, a mattress on the floor, communal washrooms and a hammock on the porch over the Mekong.   All that most visitors to the islands need or want.  Upmarket options were beginning to happen, can they coexist?

Raised gardening                                                               

Travelling Haberdasher

                              Sala Phe Restaurant and Floating Bungalows

  
 
 

We discovered Sala Phe while cycling around looking for more congenial lodgings.  Warm showers were provided by a solar panel on the roof.  Only three hours of electricity in the evenings and a room rate of $22 per night could not put us off, time to break the budget

We rushed back to Souksan to checkout just before the noontime deadline 

Sala Phe arranged pick up by long tail boat and brought us here, arriving by boat was extra special
 

Tony's favourite place to be.  Possibly the first swim up bar on the islands, just a short swim from our veranda chatting to the neighbours on theirs on his way to order himself a rum and passion fruit cocktail.  During the day they turned on the generator to make us drinks

My favourite place, the daybed in the window or the veranda              

 

 A warm shower followed by a sunset, heavenly
 

One should always bathe in ones pearls
 

Our favourite people, two yr old cousins Niey Niey and Gie who came to our bungalow early ever morning to bathe in the Mekong and to fish.  They would greet us with 'sabai dee' accompanied by a beautiful executed Nop gesture (Wai in Thailand) Their fathers and brothers would be fishing under the bungalows with harpoons and catching considerably bigger fish

Islands In The Stream                                                    

Tubing to Don Khon you have to carry the tube back to Don Det
 

The young people in Vientiane were right, we did much prefer Don Khon and the wonderful sunsets from the shore or from a rented boat were stunning.  On Don Det you get sunrise, if you are not too hung over that is

MORE PICTURES OF Don Det and Don Khon 2007

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