Don Khone Laos

On our way to Laos on a mini bus way too full of stuff and people. They have crammed four people per row in a bus made for three. I am currently straddling two seats. They also had someone who brought hundred of pounds of mango. It's everywhere. My knees are in my chest because the mango has claimed the entirety of my feet area. My feet rest on top of them. I think eventually we transfer to a bus and although buses aren't terribly comfortable it sounds like a dream right about now.  

Them taping up the bag of mangoes that exploded. The spare tire that fell and started dragging. 

Border

So we are so loaded down we kept scraping the spare on the bottom. It eventually gave way and started scraping. It hit one of the bags on the back with mangoes on it spilling them on the road. The locals had collected them within a few minutes. It was pretty funny. This ride is kind of a nightmare. 

Well we made it through the border and it was actually pretty easy. We caught our boat to Don Khone. It is right on the Mekong river. The first day we got settled in and checked out the bridge. The second we rented bikes.

Boat ride

Laos fishermen in the Mekong 

We had heard that there were some waterfalls on the island so we thought we would go check them out. We got there and falls were far more impressive that we had thought. The Mekong had through the islands cut around land masses. Here it did the same but through rock and it created tons of waterfalls. And not small falls. It was a huge valley where the water all drained towards a single point. The fall really were impressive. Not far they had created a large beach area. They had it seemed brought a lot of sand in. Here we found a bay that we could swim in. Even in the sheltered bay you could feel the strong currents swirling. It was a really fun time. 

We continued to another beach are were we ate from one of the local shacks. Brandt had some fun feeding the dogs and for his trouble got pecked in the foot by a chicken. 

We continued on to an area that was for dolphin viewing. We didn't see dolphins this time but we walked up to a viewing area where you could really see the width of the river. The island was cool. It was only a dirt road around the island. Almost no card and really just a handful of motorbikes. Plenty of people biking around. Our accommodations were $10 a night. Food was about $2-3 I think a little expensive for the country generally speaking but not to bad. Our next stop is champasak. Not positive on the spelling but it's supposed to have some temples similar to Angkor wat. It should be a fun and probably short stop over. We have some long bus rides ahead so it will be nice to break them up a bit. 

I am in the front seat for the bus ride which is a little scary. Sometimes you don't want to see what's going on. We just encountered a water buffalo in the road who despite the driver insistent honking did not seem too concerned with moving.