4000 islands (Si Phon Don)

With the Leeds boys all pissed up and drugged up, the 4000 islands sounded promising. Once the border was successfully crossed, we got a bus for a short while and then hopped on a small boat to Don Det, which is one of the 3 islands that is open to tourists. The Leeds boys were truly hammered by the time we arrived and the big lad of the group nearly tipped the boat over when he got off!

There is a sunrise and sunset side of the island and for no particualr reason, we chose the Sunset side. All the guesthouses had bungaolws with hammocks outside on the porch, which promoted the art of 'chilling'. We stayed here for 3 days in total and could have easily stayed here longer but we do have to carry on with our journey at some point. The island has such a chilled out vibe that you would always want to relax and that;s what pretty much happened for the 1st and 2nd day. Me and Vince just chilled on tubes in the river for most of the 2nd day and then Danny and Abbie had their chance on the 2nd part of the afternoon. We decided to do some activity on the 3rd day and walked to the other side of the island, where Don Khon joins to Don Det via a bridge. On the way there, Danny and his love for animals took over him and he decided to annoy and pester a monkey that was tied up to a tree. The monkey had enough when Danny took his crisp packet and went for his head-served hime right lol. (This is caught on video, and its hilarious). It costs to visit that island, so we decided against it. We chilled in the river for a while and then me and Abbie went back to chill on the hammocks.

Danny went and ventured off by himself and got confronted by three dogs, which led him to steal a fisherman boat for his escape. The boat journey was smooth, going up the river until the current was too strong and he had to park the boat but when he did get off, there was a buffalo eyeing him up for his afternoon meal. In his head, he had a fight with the buffalo, got him in a head lock and elbow dropped him, but really, he went up the river a little bit more, ditched the boat and walked through the jungle to find the path back to ours-Attenborough at his best!

The great thing about the island is that they've left it untouched as much as they can. Yes there are loads of bungalows and restaurants but the locals are very much still locals and hardly speak English. We were there over the Laos new year, and although it's meant to last 3 days, the locals on this island decided they weren't done with partying and carried on while we were there.

They didn't have an ATM or a western union so we were fucked but our friend Abbie National, had to get us out of trouble by lending us the money until we could withdraw in Pakse. It's not the first time she's saved our arse (motherly care-bless her!)

4000 Islands photo link:
http://www3.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=4545832011/a=2264773011_2264773011/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/