Don Det, LAOS....4,000 Islands

Helllooo Laos!!

Ok I have so many things I am bursting to write about so I am going to give a real quick highlights of the 4,000 Islands.

-I kid you not we took 8 different ways to actually get to our destination. But before we even left Bangkok we made a pit stop at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases. (This whole experience..is a novel, damn $$ internet cafes for making me pick and choose my stories) I got shot up with Hep A and Typhoid. Check, check. check.  We roll out of the hospital. Backpacks strapped on and cotton balls tapped to our right and left arms hailing a cab to the bus station.

-Cab, bus, tuk tuk, van, tuk tuk, motor bike with cart attached...to what we thought was a city bus stop!! Ha. yeah right girls welcome to Laos. The city bus was pretty much a large pickup truck with 3 benches. We were leg between leg with all sorts of people. People that offered us green bugs to eat. WE ATE GREEN BUGS!!!!!!!  3 HOURS later butts were bruised and we were covered in dust from barreling down dirt roads... we arrived to the boating aspect of the trip. 12 minute boat ride to the Island of Don Det where we found a cute little hut to sleep.

-2 plastic chairs, 2 hammocks, a little wooden table took up the deck. One large bed with a skeeter net over it was all that fit in the room with us three and our new besties...the backpacks.  What else do we need!? (Will have a blog post dedicated to lodging. Pics and everything...stay tuned, coming this May! )

-The bathroom was a few huts down. Just lovely accommodations...2 squatter stalls and then one sink and shower. I mean it was perfect if I pissed on my feet I could just jump next door and wash them off in the shower. What more could I ask for!

-Our humble home also consisted of some great neighbors that had some pretty interesting conversations then would wake us up in the middle of the night doing the dirty. We had to turn the fan on and crank the ipods....we don't want to hear that!  Don't you guys know the roster wakes us up at sunrise, the family starts banging pots and pans around and chopping things, the babies that live behind us start crying and the pig, dogs and chickens are up making noise early too!

-I don't know whether to call Don Det a farm, a cabin, a mini Amsterdamn, a camp site......

-Mini Amsterdam? Say what? Well I will only tell you this. Take what you will. They had "happy" just about everything. Happy shakes, happy cake, happy cookies....you name it they could make it happy. Heck, I heard from some mouse  they would even roll you a joint. I am not sure what joint translates to in English but let me tell you......

-They had a beautiful waterfall on the other side of the island. We rode our rented bikes for 30 minutes, crossed a bridge, saw local schools (dirt floors and old school desks), local village people and beautiful views of the Mekong River.  I am going to be calling some moments on my trip...living in the postcard...cause some of the things we saw I don't think I believed was REAL! But it was!!!!

- After seeing the waterfalls we went hiking down to the beach and went swimming in the water that we just saw crashing against the rocks. I have never seen water like this water....I am not even going to describe it....I promise lots of pictures in a few months.

-Great food on the island. fresh fruit, muesli, pumpkin burgers..yum.yum.yum.  We were tired girls from all the traveling and bike riding and swimming we were sleeping by 9 30 PM each night. OLD LADIES!

-We did not get to see the dolphins, but it's ok, I did not cry.

-We were glad we made the trip...but we were ready to leave after two nights (2 1/2 days plus a full day).....we packed our bags and hopped on a boat back to mainland to catch a van to catch a bus to bring us to the Capital of Laos......I am going to try to give updates dates city by city? I will try.

-I will tell you about the night bus ride and our 1st 2 days in Vientiane soon. I love Vientiane. Love. Love. Love. I am very dirty from today's activities. So it is time to take a shower and get some grub with a lovely older couple we met today at Buddha Park. They are going to give us some tips on Vietnam because they LOVE it there and want to make sure we enjoy ourselves, are safe, don't get ripped off and I think they miss their 22 year old son so they adopted us three girls for the night instead.

Vientiane coming soon.........