Travelling to Don Det I realised that all I really knew of our destination was that it was called the 4000 islands. I was therefore expecting something a lot more impressive than what my eyes came to witness. There are actually only three islands large enough to host human civilisation, the largest being 30 km long. The majority of the ‘islands’ are little bushes growing out of the water. Who really could be bothered to count all of those bushes? And who’s to say there isn’t only 3999 and they miscounted? I’m sure nobody in their right mind would care enough to verify.
As you know we weren’t particularly clued up on the island but had decided to hop off as we hadn’t been to an island yet, we just assumed it would be great! It turned out it was, just not in the way you’d expect. Personally my expectations were white beaches, clear turquoise water and palm trees. Don’t ask me why I suddenly fancied that the Mekong river would turn blue. What you actually got was a slightly grubby island with a heavy emphasis on drinks and drugs, with two streets worth of restaurants, bars, and guesthouses. It sounds slightly underwhelming but it had its charms.
It had one main beach, a disappointing 20 metres in length, with sand of a muddy golden shade, the streets were paths where the grass had been worn away to dusty sand by travellers walking up and down it all day, the restaurants and bars were wooden shacks lining the path on either side, as you walked down it you’d hear Friends playing in one restaurant, while a little further down there’d be a random film playing at Adam’s bar. People were content to settle down in one of these restaurants for hours at a time, occasionally ordering drinks and enjoying the entertainment on offer. You couldn’t help but notice as you walked along the island that the rules on drugs are very lax, if not non-existant. Everywhere you looked there would be an advertisement for a ‘happy shake, or a ‘happy cake’, meaning food or drink with either marijuana or mushrooms infused into the recipe, your preference. There was even a happy pizza with mushrooms.
We stayed there three nights instead of the one. The main activities, if you didn’t want to get high every night, were kayaking or cycling to see the waterfalls and the dolphins. We’d had a busy few days so for the first two on the island it was nice to settle in to the relaxed style of life and recharge our batteries. There were a lot of fruit juices and ice shakes consumed on these first two days as the heat was so oppressive. Our guide informed us that it had reached 40 degrees on one of the days! Any sort of movement brought forth a cascade of sweat onto your forehead, not to mention other places of the body. It was a drain of energy, the only life form on the island that seemed unaffected by the heat was the energetic little puppy at our guesthouse. He was a little black and white bundle of cuteness who was determined to nibble the whole island to smithereens, I spent many hours chilling in the guesthouse either playing with the little guy or just watching him scamp about as he lifted my spirits to ever soaring new heights.
On our last full day on the island we were ready to finally do some real exploring. We hired some bicycles, less than a pound for the day, and set forth. The bicycles we’re quite battered little things but compared to the bikes we rented in Ayuttaya they were like majestic steeds alongside a poor donkey. The journey was a simple one thankfully, we followed the river mostly straight down to a bridge where we crossed to another island. Here we had to take a break as we were already sweating like buffaloes, I was tempted to join them chilling in the water. While we had a break we attempted to play with a tiny Laos child in the shop but I’m not sure he enjoyed it, in fact the look of fear in his eyes would suggest anything but enjoyment.
With another twenty minutes cycling we made it to the entrance of the waterfalls. However, I wouldn’t really describe them as waterfalls. They were more like rapids, the different tributaries meeting each other with aggression churning out foamy white water. As I looked on I was wishing I could just ride the rapids like a water slide, one because the water would have been so nice on my overheated body, and two because it looked pretty damn fun. It’s a shame that if I tried the rivers would have left me a bruised, bloody, drowned mess.
After the waterfall we followed the signs to see the dolphins, sadly the signs were misplaced by a really lovely looking bar that were trying to coax visitors I believe. I was definitely tempted to stay there for a couple of hours and enjoy the lovely views of the beach behind the bar, as well as the lovely views of the HD football they had playing on the telly. Alas I purchased a big bottle of water and we left in the pursuit of Dolphins.
We eventually made it, the path ending in a narrow track sloping downhill leading onto a beach. At the bottleneck of the track there were two ‘restaurants’ situated on the left and the right, both awkwardly competing for business. As you approached they would both shout, remonstrate, and plea for you to enter their restaurant. Thankfully when we arrived only the restaurant on the right were on their game and therefore coaxed us over before we knew we had an option.
We walked onto the beach secluded by the restaurants and there were only 4 other people on the whole beach. I couldn’t resist, I whacked my shirt off and dived into the water. It was so refreshing and so required. After that we haggled down the price to see the Dolphin’s to a halfway reasonable one and set off. So I assumed you’d go out on the river in a boat and the dolphins would swim alongside you etc. What actually happened was the boat took you to a really wide peninsula in the river, sits there while you get barracked by the sun, and while the Dolphin’s come out of the water far enough for you to see the tips of their noses, which wasn’t easy as we were miles away. After getting fed up we ventured back to our guesthouse. The bike home was arduous, I was aching after the first leg of the journey, and the heat simply wasn’t letting up.
After a fitful sleep due to the heat (you’re going to understand it was incredibly hot by the end of this blog post okay?!) the Laos/Cambodia bordered awaited us. We had a frightful journey ahead.
The Searcher 