Our last stop in Laos was 4000 Islands, located in the Mekong river, bordering Cambodia. There aren't really 4000 islands, and of these only two of them are inhabited: Don Det and Don Khong.

We took took a 10 hours sleeping bus from Vientiane to Pakse, followed by another 4 hours on a mini-bus, then a boat across the Mekong.

At first our plan was to stay on Don Det, however we didn't arrange our accommodation before-hand, it is mostly small bungalows owned by locals, so you can't really find anything to book online.

Once we got out of the boat in Don Det we decided to get something to eat, then look for a place to stay. And that's when I realized where I was...

Dirt tracks and bungalows by the river were all I saw... The locals don't hide themselves behind the tourism business, it all happens together, their lives and everyday activities are on display, tourism is just one of the ways to make money.

Once we got ourselves some food, it was time to look for accommodation. Pace volunteered to go around the island by himself to find a place, while I waited in the restaurant with our bags, I insisted on going with him...

We walked and walked... The heat was a intense, my rucksack was getting heavier and heavier with every step, I was trying to keep a good mood... However once we were in the middle of an endless paddy field, with nothing else around us, but mud, rice and cows, I finally lost it. I got really grumpy an irritated, Pace kept a positive energy and a smile on his face. After one and half hour, a lot of walking on muddy tracks and annoying Pace with my grumpiness, we gave up on finding a place and took a tuk tuk across the bridge that connects Don Det to Don Khong.



On a even muddier road we found a bungalow, but after seeing it, I made it very clear that it was going to be only for one night.

We slept for a little while through the afternoon, and went out to get dinner before it started raining. Well, we were too late and a heavy rain caught us on the way. We found a little restaurant by the river and stopped there. We were curious about the happy shake on the menu. We assumed it was a fruit shake with weed, but after getting very drowsy, getting back to the bungalow (I don't know how), sleeping like rocks for around 12 hours, we realized the "happy" in the shake was in fact Valium, we later found out this is very common on some of the menus.


Next morning, we hired a tuk-tuk to take us back to Don Det. We found a nice guest-house, clean, big rooms and a shower with hot water.

Although I didn't have a good start on 4000 islands, I enjoyed it a lot. It's a place to relax, everything is very slow there. You don't feel the need to do anything, the atmosphere brings a lot of calmness. The main activity for tourists is lying on hammocks overlooking the Mekong.



We were planning on staying there for a couple of days and ended up staying for 5. We spent our time walking around the island, taking photos, cycling, exercising, trying different happy shakes and doing a lot of nothing. It was for sure the most relaxing part of our journey.