In Kratie, we had arranged a minivan to bring us to Stung Treng, the last big stop in Cambodia before the border with Laos.
From there, we took another minibus to the border. We waited for over an hour before everyone had their visas and passports processed. Despite having got a visa in advance, we still had to pay a stamping fee (aka bribe) to pass through customs.
We then walked through the no-mans land and onto yet another bus, this one bound for Don Det, our first destination in Laos.
Don Det is part of Si Phan Don, or Four Thousand Islands: a stunning portion of the southern Laotian Mekong river, comprising literally thousands of islets, sandbars and proper inhabited islands.
Once at the pier, we took a small boat to Don Det and were greeted by a group of backpackers swimming and tubing on Don Det's small beach. What was hilarious was that there was also a buffalo bathing along with them and as he was leaving, he took a massive shit just upstream from them. Needless to say, this prompted the swimmers to scream and get out of the water, much to our amusement.
Don Det is the primary backpacker island in Four Thousand Islands and since we were there in the high season, we knew accommodations would be hard to come by.
In fact, we walked around for quite some time before finally securing a basic room on the sunrise side of the island.
For the rest of the day, we just lounged around and enjoyed the river scenery.
That evening, we spent the first of many nights at Pool Bar, the most popular bar on the island. After about 2 or 3 of the tremendously famous Beer Lao, we had to call it a night because we could hardly keep our eyes open.
Since it was such an early night, I woke up and took a walk around the entire island. After only 10-minutes from our room, the accommodations thinned out and you could see the modest homes of local islanders and the gorgeous riverside landscape nestled between Don Det and neighboring Don Khon.
From there I walked another hour to the southern tip of the island and then made my way up the sunset (western) coast.
While this side was more sparsely occupied, it didn't have the same beautiful views as the eastern coast.
Upon my return, I was surprised to see Matt and Till relaxing at a beach-side restaurant. I joined them for a coffee and we discussed our respective plans for Laos.
I also joined them for a swim in the Mekong and luckily the resident bull was downstream from us.
That evening, Pool Bar was having a DJ from Europe spinning at a special event and they went as far as bribing the local police to keep the bar open until 1:30am!
Laos is officially a communist state and because of this, they have certain restrictive rules in place like 11pm curfews in some places, Si Phan Don being one of them.
The Dj was quite good and the four of us enjoyed buckets and danced on the cramped dance floor before it was last call.
After the party, everyone congregated on the small beach and continued the festivities, albeit without music or a dance floor.
At a certain point, Till was quite drunk and said he feels like a drunken baby, and when asked how that feels, he responded "comfortable" with a sleepy smile. It actually became a recurring joke after that night.
To unwind after a solid night of partying, Josh and I took a walk to Don Khon island.
It took around 45 minutes to reach the French-built bridge and we crossed over to Don Khon.
From Don Khon we then found Khone Pa Soi waterfall.
Our longer than expected journey took us through dry rice fields, purposefully burning crops and over a few suspension bridges before finally reaching the falls.
The falls were quite impressive and it was interesting to see how locals set up nets and other contraptions to catch fish in the strong currents.
Once back on Don Det, we met up with Till and Matt and enjoyed a delicious Indian meal.
We had reserved a bus to take us to Tha Khaek, our base for exploring Kong Lo cave. Till and Matt would also be joining us on this journey.
Don Det to Tha Khaek took roughly 11 hours and we arrived at almost 10pm. It then took us almost 2 hours of wandering around before finally finding a place to stay.
Tha Khaek is located just across the Mekong river from Thailand and because of this strategic location, many Thai businessmen come over for trade and cause room rates to be rather inflated and difficult to come by.
The following morning we hired a van to take the 4 of us to the Phu Hin Bun National Protected Area: home to Kong Lo cave.
Kong Lo cave is a 7.5 km cave/subterranean river passing through a huge limestone mountain. You need to hire a long-tail boat to traverse it.
After around halfway, you moor and walk through an impressive array of stalactites, before continuing the rest of the way by boat.
Of course, once back on the boat, the safe meal of chicken and rice I had eaten prior to our boat trip was not agreeing with me and I really wished I had popped an Imodium prior to leaving. At a certain point I broke out in a cold sweat and told our boat driver I needed to get off the boat, and fast! Luckily there was a massive gravel pit in the cave and I sprinted up it, pulling down my shorts just in the nick of time. I had no toilet paper at the time so I had to use my boxers to clean myself off.
So please, if you ever find yourself in Kong Lo cave and come across a pair of black Calvin Klein's, by all means do not pick them up! I turned one of the Laos' longest caves into the world's longest toilet!
Anyways, back to the boat trip...
It was extremely impressive to see the grandeur and absolute darkness (thankfully) when traversing the cave.
Once we reached the exit, we took a brief break before going back through to the mouth of the cave.
On our way back, our driver stopped at a viewpoint overlooking the beautiful mountainous countryside before completing the rest of the 2-hour drive back to Tha Khaek.
The next day, it took another 6 hours by luxury coach to reach Vientiane, the capital of Laos.
Matt and Till opted to immediately transfer onto a night bus to Luang Prabang, while Josh and I would spend a night in Vientiane before joining them the next day.
Before our German friends headed out, we briefly stopped in front of the That Dum Stupa (no joke!), and presidential palace.
In the past 3 days, we had driven over 23 hours between Don Det and Vientiane and we had another 10 hours of mountainous roads before reaching Luang Prabang the next day.
For such a small country, it sure takes a bloody long time to get anywhere!
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