4000 Islands - Time For Some R & R

Si Phon Don (four thousand islands) is an archipelago of sandbars and rocky islets set amongst the greenish-brownish, hurtling Mekong River. It's at the far end of Lao, very near the border with Cambodia. There are three main islands and we decided to head to the quieter of the three - Don Kohn. After a small riverboat jaunt we set off looking for a bungalow overlooking the river. Within 2 minutes we got our wish at Pan's Guest House. Don Kohn is the perfect place to relax.

We spent most of our time sitting on the veranda, hanging out in a hammock, beer Lao in hand, catching up on some reading and watching the monsoonal rain. While it mostly rained we did venture over to nearby Don Det island to check out the infamous backpacker scene on bikes. Its about 20 minutes to get over there. As we feared it was 'backpacker land' with little restaurants full of menus offering "happy" (aka druggy) drinks. Thankful for our retreat, we headed back to quiet of Don Kohn. The heavens had darkened though and monsoonal rain, we can now state categorically from personal experience, is very heavy and very wetting.

















Next stop, Cambodia. We look forward to negotiating the tax (read: bribe) when crossing the border....