after champasak, we went to the islands of don khon and don deht (part of what is known as the 4,000 islands). this might be the world's first and only internet seat. but, you know, you gotta take the wood where you can find it.
being islands, you have to, of course, take a boat to get there. and so i was on yet another boat on the mekong.
and don deht was looking quite lovely.
these are all guest bungalows, actually. the locals don't live right on the water. at least not on that i observed, anyway.
is this the cutest piglet on earth or what?
mmmm...dirt.
sometimes you are lucky enough to get a ferry with a roof. sometimes not, and then you are basically in a motorized canoe.
...or a non-motorized one if your purpose is not ferrying passengers across the river to the other side.
want to know why the happy cake birth day is measured in kilograms? perhaps so you can gauge correctly whether there will be enough cake for all your birthday party attendees? think again. 'happy' on don deht and in laos and i think most of southeast asia in general means that the food item in question is served with an added kick: marijuana. i'm not sure where the birthday part of this cake figures in. usually you just see happy shakes and happy pizza on offer. so if you develop a hankerin' for any of the above, just contrack them!
we walked from don khon on one side of the island to don deht on the other (oh, and we had to pay for the privilege of doing so. you can't go on the little bridge without paying. at least, we were assured, our ticket was good for a full 24 hours, so if we wanted to go back and forth again tomorrow, we could. as long as we were early enough.
we stayed in don deht for sunset and pretty decent indian and malaysian food. and then ended up having to walk all the way back in the dark. oops. luckily, it was only one night away from a full moon, and our way through the normally dark rice fields was fairly well lit. we only almost tripped on the rocky road a few times.
What reassurance! Isn't it nice to know if you have no money or friends someone will come to your rescue for just 80,000 kip ($10 dollars)? Which means you really do have to have money after all, of course... (Also, JVC card? Did someone invent a VCR that also dispenses money? After all, if any machine needs to be finding another way to make itself useful right about now...)
toon and i parted ways the next morning, as he went to meet a friend in thailand before returning home to brussels. i moved from don khon to don deht and spent another night (which included a huge nighttime festival (for the full moon, we were told, but it was never exactly clear) that i unfortunately didn't bring my camera to) before heading for the border crossing to cambodia.
i know, a running theme on this island (which, yes, is full of backpackers). thank goodness for cradit cards you can use in the morming, no?
