Laos Four Thousand Islands of Tranquility

Four Thousand Islands ( or Si Phan Don in the Lao language) is a place for soaking up the unbelievable nonchalance and tranquility of life somewhere far removed from the stresses of everyday life. The appeal of this river archipelago lies in the chilled vibe of the twin islands of Don Det and Don Khon. Here the mighty Mekong River is at its widest, with crops of little islands scattered around, some of them no bigger than a sandbar with a little pod of trees on top. 

Lying in a hammock of our wooden bungalow terrace, with a cold Beerlao in hand we spent hours staring out into the Mekong River as the sun was setting behind one of the many islets in the distance. Even the strange noises of our house gecko couldn’t disturb the tranquility of this place. Occasionally a boat would buzz by, forming small ripples in the calm river waters.

The long bus rides, the cramped long wooden boat to get here now a distant memory, we are on the Island of Don Det and life can’t get any better than this.

At the end of this post, I will explain in more detail about how we got here, but first, let me tell you about some of the reasons that made us leave the gentle swinging of our hammock to explore the charms of life in these remote islands. 

Walking around the main street of Don Det  – The main street was lined with small shops, charming bars, restaurants, and fruit stalls. The island of Don Det consists of just one main road, it does not take long to walk to the end of the road and see it all. Just wandering around and people watching was fascinating. Renting a bicycle is very popular for exploring the rest of the island, so we considered it but ended up renting a little motorbike for one day and we spent the whole day exploring further afield into the neighboring island of Don Khon also. 

Don Det main street.

The main road was a lot quieter than usual, since the coronavirus outbreak many people were canceling their travel plans.

In the evening some of the bars had music, but it was all very low key and sedate.

Booze Cruise to watermelon island – Not sure how we got persuaded to take part on a booze cruise so early on in our paradise island stay, but I guess we were keen to see the islands from the water and experience the “promised” extraordinary sunsets. I am so glad we did this trip since it ended up being a very memorable experience and not at all your typical booze cruise. The cruise departed from our hotel, the “Souksan Sunset Bungalows”; in fact the boat was the same one used by the hotel to serve our breakfast every morning.

Our fellow cruisers were mostly French, but all spoke good English. There was also a Brit from Southend-on-Sea called Mandie, who has been traveling solo in SE Asia. An adventurous girl who has traveled extensively including hiking up Kilimanjaro, trekking to EBC, and various other amazing trips. She was staying at our hotel and so we got to hang out with her a lot, she was a very interesting person and gave us some great tips for things to do later on in Cambodia and in Vietnam. She was heading in the opposite direction to us. 

“Toto” the dog with his owner enjoying the river cruise.

Jason, our tour guide was also British, the boat Captain and his helper were Laotian. Accompanying us we also had “Toto” the dog, who belonged to one of the crew. When we reached the island, some of our fellow travelers were eager to go for a swim on the Mekong river, others just enjoyed a drink on the makeshift bar or exploring the crops of watermelon and hanging out waiting for the beautiful sunset.

There was not a lot to see on this small island, but we enjoyed just people-watching, relaxing, and finally getting to witness the amazing sunset. 

Our cruising boat behind me and some of our fellow cruisers taking a dip into the Mekong.

Enjoying the fabulous sunset and simplicity of island life.

After sunset, we left the island, not realizing we had left poor Toto the dog behind. We were almost halfway back when someone noticed it, so we had to turn back and rescue him. Even though it was already dark, somehow Toto spotted the boat from a distance and launched himself into the water, and one of the boat crew also jumped in to help him into the boat. An exhausted Toto returned happily with us back to Don Det. 

Irrawaddy Dolphins – We teamed up with Mandie to search for the elusive dolphins. Departing from Don Det riding for a few kilometers in a very strange “tuk-tuk” type vehicle, we crossed into Don Khon via a French stone bridge and through some dusty roads to a location where we boarded a long wooden boat.

Sharing a ride with Mandie, we depart Don Det to go in search of nearly extinct Irrawaddy Dolphins.

We did spot the elusive Irrawaddy Dolphins, but photographing them was not so easy, here is my very bad attempt.

I suspect it was gasoline for the boats on those little plastic bottles…at least I hope so.

We were right on the border with Cambodia, in fact, we could see it on the other side of the river. Sadly the 4000 Islands are the last remaining location of freshwater Irrawaddy dolphins anywhere in the world. 

Li Phi Falls – also called Tat Somphamit Waterfalls  – Accessed via the western coast of Don Khon, this waterfall was very interesting to visit, although we have seen much more impressive waterfalls in places like Iceland and Norway, we certainly still enjoyed visiting this area. There are viewing platforms over the falls and also a zipline for the more adventurous adrenaline junkies out there, we decided to pass although it did look quite safe. There is even a secluded white sandy beach not far from the viewing platform, which we enjoyed exploring. (We did meet someone later on our trip who had her bag stolen at this beach so be careful.)

Brian having a closer look at the Li Phi Waterfall and making me nervous.

Ziplining over the Mekong and waterfalls (not me).

We hired a motorbike for the day to explore the waterfalls and also to visit the rest of the island. We rode via the center of the island towards another waterfall called Khon Pa Soy and ended up having lunch and chilling out at a very charming restaurant by a suspension bridge that crosses a beautiful gorge. The bridge has certainly seen better days and it is currently under repair, although that did not stop us and others from having a closer look and a walk on its precarious wooden pathway. 

Brian ignoring the warning signs.

Charming restaurant overlooking the river and rickety old bridge.

Traveling around on our rented motorbike was a good way of seeing the interior of the island, the dusty roads are not paved but they were not too bad. It was interesting to see the many small farms along the way, the type of animals, and the crops that they have here. Most of the people we encountered were locals. 

Fancy some marijuana? – We certainly did not expect to be offered that so openly, but we were not that surprised since we had spotted the signs around the island. We spent an interesting evening at a bar called “Street Bar” owned by an Australian. 

Our waiter at the bar who I will call Mr. X, was “high” on the happy stuff and he was happy to offer us some, but we politely declined. He was a very interesting man and also a great cook, he soon got the barbecue fire going and cooked us some fantastic pork chops on the grill. The beer was flowing and so was the conversation, he had been living in Don Det for over 15 years, married a Lao lady 10 years ago and together they have an 8 years old son. 

He tells us that there are currently another five Westerners who have hotel/restaurant businesses on these islands. Over the years many have tried to set up businesses here, but only very few managed to succeed. Although he loves his simple life in Laos, he is getting itchy feet. He is also worried about his son’s future and therefore he is not sure what he wants to do next.

Recently, due to the coronavirus outbreak, many of the Chinese and South Korean tourists have canceled their bookings, and business owners on the island have been getting worried. 

We thoroughly enjoyed spending a few hours chatting with him, his cool bar was extremely quiet, with only one other couple there during our visit. I guess coronavirus was already starting to impact their livelihood and little did we know then (February 2020), that things would get a lot worse very soon. 

Cats and Dogs rule – They roam around freely, in and out of restaurants and people’s businesses. It was not unusual to find a friendly dog lying down by our feet at a restaurant or staring at us for some scraps of food. All cats and dogs looked well-fed, healthy, and super chilled out. 

This little dog joined us for breakfast (on our breakfast boat) every morning, here Mandie is giving him some bread.

How cheeky is this little fella?

Our Journey to the Four Thousand Islands in Southern Laos

Our dilemma when leaving Laos Capital city of Vientiane was how to get to Si Phan Don/Four Thousand Islands. Our friends Golda and Jamie (who we had met in Vang Vieng) enjoyed a short flight of just 1:30 hrs to Pakse (the gateway town to the Four Thousand Islands). Therefore flying was something we seriously considered (flying would not be expensive), but it was our aim to travel overland as much as possible during our 10 weeks backpacking in SE Asia, so we decided that another “VIP” bus journey would be our choice.

We could have chosen between doing a long overnight trip from Vientiane directly to Pakse on a sleeper bus or we could travel during the day and stay for a couple of days of rest halfway in Tha Khaek. We opted to stay for two nights in Tha Khaek and take a break there. 

The large bus was not exactly VIP, but no surprises there since by now we knew what to expect. It was very full, but we managed to get the last two seats together, the most bizarre thing was that the corridor of the bus was full of black bin bags, we had to step over them to get to our seats. Some people didn’t manage to get a seat and ended up lying on top of the bin bags.

At least Brian has a place to rest his arms ..lol.

We later realized that the bin bags belonged to a family of three consisting of mum, dad, and a small child who were clearly moving home and taking all of their belongings with them. We felt sorry for the young mother who ended up getting motion sickness during the journey. Five long hours later we arrived at our destination of Tha Khaeck, where we stayed at the lovely Inthira Hotel, the old French Villa was the most stylish digs in this town. 

Tha Khaeck

This riverside town used to be an Indochinese trading post, but now it is usually a stop off for people who are doing “The Loop” a 450 Km, 3 days motorbike journey through the jungle, mountains, and rivers of the Laos countryside and it culminates at the impressive river cave of Tham Kong Lor. We had no intention of riding The Loop, but we did meet plenty of people who were renting motorbikes in town and setting off the following day. We spent our time relaxing, eating, and walking around the old town or along the river.

We entered the month of February 2020 on a lively Saturday, the town was alive with celebrations and we woke up to the sound of loud music from the town center. Later in the day, I spent some time on the phone chatting with my sister Angelita who was feeling inconsolable.

Her best friend Ana Carolina had passed away following six years of breast cancer treatment in Brazil, aged only 31. She was diagnosed in New York, USA during her year abroad studying towards a Law degree, aged just 25. Following the diagnosis she returned to Brazil to start her cancer treatment. She concluded her Law degree and later became a spokesperson for cancer charities.  

I had met her a few times during my visits to my home town in Brazil. She was beautiful, clever, fun, and incredibly brave. She never complained about the many surgeries and cancer treatments she had to endure. A truly inspiring young woman. 

This sad news left us both feeling very low and so we decided to just take it easy for the rest of the day, we did enjoy a nice meal in the evening though and retiring early to our hotel room, ready for the next morning journey.  

The next leg of our journey was another 8 hours by bus to Pakse, and even though the bus was already full it continued to stop constantly to pick up more passengers who had no other option but to sit on small plastic stools crammed all the way down the aisle. There were people getting motion sickness, but luckily we had medication. I felt so sorry for a French lady who was having a really hard time, and I ended up giving her some of my anti-sickness medication which worked well for her. 

This lady was selling something that looked like little barbecued birds.

Toilet and food breaks were very bizarre, and the street food vendors had some very peculiar offerings. I guess all these experiences are part of the journey, but we would probably consider this bus ride the worst we had so far. 

It was a great relief to finally arrive at our destination and check-in at the lovely Pakse Hotel (thank you to Golda and Jamie for a great recommendation), where we spent the rest of the evening relaxing at the beautiful rooftop bar with drinks and a meal. 

Happy Hour cocktails at the Pakse Hotel rooftop bar

Pakse To Four Thousand Islands

We booked our trip from Pakse to the Four Thousand Island (Si Phan Don) on the day we arrived in Pakse at a little travel agency attached to our hotel, but it can be bought from other places around Pakse. We bought the bus/ferry combo ticket with a company called Green Paradise, leaving at 8 am the following morning.

After a delicious breakfast (probably the best one we had in Laos) at the hotel, we were picked up by a comfortable minivan and taken to the bus station where we boarded a comfortable larger bus with aircon and good seats to Nakasong “bus” station ( basically a shed and a parking lot where the buses and songthaews arrive and depart from).

The journey took about 3 hours to Nakasong where we disembarked the bus to find our friends Golda and Jamie (who we met at Vang Vieng) waiting to take that same bus we arrived on, back to Pakse. We just had time to say a quick hello to them and we had to run to catch our boat/ferry to Don Det from the nearby wharf ( about 200 meters from this “bus stop”). At a small shack by the river, we exchanged the ticket we got from the agency for another ticket to board the ferry boat ( a Lao wooden longboat). 

We all boarded the longboat to Don Det. Some people were getting the boat to Don Khon from here also, the tickets were of a different color.

The boat ride from Nakasong to Don Det was very pleasant and it took just about 15 minutes, meandering through the little islets. 

On our return trip to the mainland we stayed one more night in Pakse again in the same hotel we had stayed previously…the “Pakse Hotel” (totally recommend this hotel) before our flight to Cambodia the following day.  

Final Thoughts on Laos

We spent almost 3 weeks traveling through Laos from North to South. Starting our journey boarding a Slow Boat at Huay Xai along the mighty Mekong River to alluring Luang Prabang, continuing on by bus to Vang Vieng > Vientiane > Tha Khaek > Pakse > bus and ferry boat combo to Four Thousand Islands/ Si Phan Don and then back again to Pakse for our flight to Siem Reap in Cambodia. 

We thoroughly enjoyed visiting this long, skinny country. Laos was one of the most authentic places of our 10 weeks backpacking in SE Asia. There are caves, waterfalls, rice paddies, karst mountains, Buddhist Temples, French Colonial Architecture, tropical jungles and not forgetting the amazing Mekong River running through the heart of the country. We also enjoyed finding out about its history, culture, food, and very warm and friendly people. Not forgetting that for travelers on a tight budget, this is one of the cheapest countries in SE Asia. We would not hesitate to recommend adding Laos to your SE Asia itinerary, but perhaps you should consider flying from Vientiane to Pakse and avoid some very long bus journeys through the middle of the country (with the benefit of hindsight it would be the only thing we would do differently). 

Goodbye Laos!!

As we leave Laos behind we are looking forward to the next stage of our travels exploring Cambodia and then Vietnam. I will be writing about our visit to Siem Reap and the incredible Angkor Wat Temples on my next blog post.