Nothing is something worth doing.

After Pakse we headed to the island of Don Det in the Siphandon (4000 islands) in Southern Laos. I visited Don Det already last year, and we were really looking forward to just taking it easy. We had been so busy with all the sightseeing, that we really deserved a little holiday off our holiday!

Don Det is rather popular with the backpacker crowd, but also there are Lao villages on the island. Traditionally these people have made their living by farming and fishing, but now increasingly people build bungalows to rent and open restaurants to make more money than farming would allow. The number of new establishments compared to last year was shocking, and the building works were going on in every corner. I'm really hoping that there is a limit somewhere, and Don Det will not lose it's rustic feel.

The joke about Lao PDR standing for People Don't Rush (instead of People's Democratic Republic) still held very true here. Usually to get service you had to go and find the waiter, and usually when it was time to pay the bill, you had to remember what you had had (sometimes during the whole day if you got stuck in one place) as they weren't too particular about keeping track of it.

We ended up staying for nine days, doing nothing in particular. Swims and tubing in the river, books in the hammock, beers in the Happy Bar, films at Adams. Or, in pictures:

What would be a better way to enjoy the evening than have a cold beer and watch a beautiful sunset over Mekong?

Our bungalow had a balcony just by the Mekong. Dr Pepper reading in the hammock.

Mario, the guy who ran one of our favourite haunts, which served only one delicious dish per day and mojitos if he happened to have ice. If not, people were welcome to buy beer from his neighbours and bring it in. I liked the relaxedness of his business - here he's in the middle of a game of petanque as well as chatting in Lao to the head of the village (if I remember right?). 

The animals weren't tied down - it was common to see a water buffalo wandering down the high street...

...or a pair of lost looking geese! (High street after the rain was more of a high mudpath.)

We spent one day at Adam's watching all of the Lord of the Rings movies and drinking quite a few lemon shakes (some with local whisky).

And one of the days we managed to be active and we hired bikes to visit Don Khone island in the south. As there are non-passable waterfalls in the area, the French had built a railroad from Don Khone to Don Det to ship deliveries up the Mekong. Nowadays only the remains of the harbours, train tracks and a couple of rusted trains remained, as well as the bridge between the two islands. Don Khone does not have as many bungalows or restaurants, but it has some pretty decent waterfalls, a beach and a spot to view the freshwater dolphins. 

Water-fall fishing on Don Khone.

With good binoculars, it might be possible to see freshwater dolphins here. I saw them last year from a boat, but it's mainly splashes of water and a couple of fins that you see. 

(c) for all photos belongs to Boyfriend.