Leaving our “palace” in Pakse on Monday morning was quite sad,as we thought that we would never find another place as nice as this in southern Laos as it is very sparsely populated, so we boarded our mini bus ( some bloody “mini” bus, they squashed thirty two people into a twenty seater ! ) and headed off to the Island of Don Khong which is one of the biggest Islands in the four thousand Island bunch, after about two and a half hours on the road, we came to a ferry on the Mekong delta ( I say ferry, it took four vehicles in total ) and we crossed onto the Island, and within a half a mile we were deposited in the village of Muang Khong on the eastern side of the Island. We toddled off down the road to see what we could find in the way of accommodation and within twenty minutes we were offered this room overlooking the river,

All for the ridiculous price of £3.10 each per night !!!

As we had been on the road for a while, we thought that we deserved a nice lunch, so sat in a restaurant overlooking the river, we tucked into a nice light meal of rice and something ! it doesn’t really matter what the something is, as it is always good.

Its pretty obvious as to what happens now, yep, you guessed it, we had a siesta ! and when we awoke, it was getting on in the afternoon, so showered, togged up etc. we headed out for a walk through the village to work up another appetite. We ate another meal around 8pm, then headed off out of the village to find a dark place in which to enjoy ourselves.  You are all wrong ! what we went for was a place to sit and watch the stars, in fact we ended up lying in the road ( told you it was a quiet place ) for about half an hour, and enjoyed the peace and quiet and the amazing “sky TV”.

Off back to the room to have an early night as we wanted to be up early to catch the sunrise. What a sunrise it turned out to be, 5.45 am came round and this is what we witnessed;

Well, what better way to start a day ! after sitting on our balcony sharing this moment, we sat and talked for a couple of hours then decided it was time for breakfast, after that, we headed for the local bank to change what “Kip” we had left into dollars to make the transition into Cambodia a bit easier. A bloody long walked followed, and we found ourselves meeting loads of the locals, seeing folk hard at work and feeling the sun getting hotter by the minute.

We spent a little while organising our transport to Cambodia, doing last minute clothes washing in the sink, and sorting backpacks, before having our lunch and siesta. Awake around 4pm, it was then time to do our physical stuff for the day, so Nuria went off jogging for half an hour while I sorted photo’s on my laptop. Another long walk before our evening meal was called for, then food and wine were the agenda for the rest of the night.

I have to summarise Laos, mainly because it has been my favourite place so far in my travels, so her goes;

Best thing was meeting Nuria, the 25 year old girl from Barcelona, she has been fantastic company, and someone who I felt totally at ease with, being able to to talk way into the night about “life” and everything else, we have shared twin bedded rooms, double bed rooms and never once felt awkward with each other. I am sure we will continue our friendship for a long time, and I wish her all the happiness she deserves.

The people of Laos are some of the nicest,most laid back and friendliest of folk that I have ever met.

The scenery is breath-taking, so many places to go trekking into the wilderness and enjoy life in its purest form.

There is a strange and wonderful sense of “energy” in some of the places we visited.

The transport system is certainly one of the craziest I have come across, no trains, just buses and pick ups !

In such a large country, there is only five million people, so as soon as you leave the towns, it is so peaceful and quiet.

It is certainly a place I would recommend to visit, as long as you have a desire to “ go on an adventure “.

It is so bloody cheap to eat, drink, sleep and travel. We reckon you can live here for around less than £5 a day, including accommodation, food and a couple of beers.

The next morning (2nd Nov. ) we left Laos, first by boat from the Island of Don Khong, then by mini bus to the cambodian border. Here we walked from hut to hut where officials sat and stamped paperwork ( as long as you give them $1) and eventually we passed into yet another country, we boarded the bus to take us to a small place called Kratie.