Jill & George's trip: Sabaidee from 4000 islands

After enjoying a delicious early morning breakfast overlooking the lush green ravine from the treetop restaurant, we were looking forward to our VIP bus which would take us into Laos. A rather small minibus turned up and we were told to pile in – 4 of us to 3 seats in the back row along with most of the luggage. We estimated a maximum capacity of 16 people, so were amazed when the 22^nd person squeezed in! Our seats turned out to be some of the best with 3 people sharing the front passenger seat and one poor lad having to stand for the duration of the bumpy ride!

We arrived at the Cambodia/Laos border where our bus driver assured us that another bus would pick us up from the Laos side and then promptly drove off. We sat patiently watching the border police hard at work at their game of petanque until another, even smaller and airless bus arrived to take us to the nearby 4,000 Islands and the start of our Laos leg of the journey.

We transferred to a small wooden boat for the small Mekong Island of Don Det before setting off along Sunrise Boulevard (the only other road was, in a stroke of genius, called Sunset Strip) to find a place to stay. We ended up at a place called King Kong, which was owned by a wonderfully eccentric Scouser named Mini. He was a very accomplished chef and we spent our evenings enjoying cold beer lao and laap (a tasty Laos speciality) in the restaurant overlooking the Mekong whilst Mini would have a smoke and entertain us with fantastic stories of island life. Our bungalow was pretty rustic with a small doorless concrete bathroom attached, with just a cold water hose for a shower and a very large resident frog! When we first arrived I wondered how the hell I would be able to sleep there, but in no time I was happily swinging in the hammock enjoying the sunset over the inland paddy fields and buffalo.

Island life was very laid back and slow-paced, although for us started at 5am each morning when the cockerels would start their crowing. This always woke up the pig next door, who would start squealing along with them – not the nicest alarm clock! George and I do need to learn the art of slowing down though, on one of the most relaxed places on earth, rather than kicking back and relaxing in our hammock all day, we decided to cycle round a couple of the islands one day and then go on a full-day kayaking trip the next!

We had a great time kayaking along the Mekong, in between many of the islands all the way down to Cambodia. The currents were surprisingly strong and we were enjoying the rapids which helped us along the way. We got caught in one particularly powerful current which swept us straight towards a tree sticking out on the river. We paddled as hard as we could, but we were no match for the current and crashed straight into it! Our kayak flipped over and we had to hang on to it as we were swept further down the river before crashing into a second tree! We were both bruised and battered and very wet, but after checking that all of our possessions, which we had luckily attached to the boat in a dry bag, were all still there, we climbed back into the kayak and thought that at least it would make a funny story! The rest of the day was much calmer and we had the privilege of kayaking alongside the very rare Irrawaddy dolphins and through beautiful peaceful channels, flanked by the lush green mountainous islands. We paddled back to King Kong’s at sunset where Mini welcomed us home – it would have been very easy to stay for a long time!