Si Phon Don - Been There, Don Det

or "Hammock Time, The Remix"

Si Phon Don is a chain of islands in the Mekong River at the southern most point in Laos.  Only a few are inhabited; they are about the chillest of spots as can be found on this great globe of ours.   Talk about lazy days - hanging in hammocks overlooking the river, under the shade of palm trees, with emerald green rice fields, speckled with slothful water buffalo and sundry other livestock.   It's so peaceful and authentic (i.e., living with locals without that normally palpable divide) that you immediately relax with restful smile across your face, a feeling that never leaves until you do.

We took a bus down to these islands, and by "bus," I mean this thing:

Seriously, this was Kate at the 'bus station' standing next to our 'bus.'  We would later cram 30 people on this thing, along with fowl, carburetors, random electronics, boxes of who knows what, and this monk.  The distribution channels over there are incredibly efficient.  You're never just on a bus or a tour, you also stop at a random, roadside shop or hut and pick up some chickens or drop off a stack of buckets at another. It wasn't too bad of a ride, and we were even offered these snacks at stops along the way (biggest regret of the trip was not sampling 3 inch grilled crickets):

But, then Kate got stung by a bee-like thing, and for those who don't know, she's allergic.  We tried to hold off panic as I read her Epipen instructions, and then I crawled up on top of the truck to fish some benedryl out of our bags, stepping on top of people and belongings (no one really called me out on it because they could tell something was wrong).  Luckily she did not have a bad reaction.  Crisis averted, and by crisis, I mean that would've been a serious fricken crisis (hopping off the bus/truck, paying someone to drive us hours back up north to the nearest town with a decent looking clinic - lord knows how far that would be - yikes).

So arriving safe and sound, we hit up two of these islands.  The first was Don Khong, which is the biggest but also the most sleepy. We stayed in a beautifully old wood guesthouse on a strip of dusty road overlooking the river.  All we did on this island was rent some scooters and cruise around the outside of the island, dipping into little towns and getting greeted by all the kids, who would shout "Sabaidee!!" (hello) waving their hands - we felt like celebrities.

This was the "gas station": (man, I'm using a lot of quotes in this one - it's just that kind of place)

Kate actually took a pretty good spill, skidding out in some fine dirt.  She bounced back well, but while we were at dinner on the river, the guy we rented from came up to us complaining that we ruined his bike (it was easy to find us since there were only 3 restaurants, and they're all right next to each other).  I rubbed the dirt off that he pointed out, but then he was going on about the alignment being off.  He wanted $15 bucks, but I was not buying that crapola because I mean part of our rental payment goes to maintenance and there are just too many scammers in SE Asia to go handing money to anyone who cries about his little scooter.  But not wanting to ruin this place for the next westerner, I gave him $6 and he seemed sincerely thankful - so I could return to my dinner.

After one night at this island we headed down to Don Det for 3 nights (part of that catchy title), where we stayed at a bungalow on the river with dual hammocks running us a cool $3.25 a night.  There's me and then the bungalow next to us is where our Chicago buddies stayed (we met up with them at 3 different spots in Laos and Cambodia).

We biked around, walked the path along the river:

Watched sunsets from the bridge:

Ate "happy pizza" and drank "happy shakes" in our hammocks (they put a little something in it that starts with "p" and rhymes with "hot"):

And cavorted with water buffalo, kinda... we cavorted, the buffaloes ate.

Oh, and of course the rice fields and our neighbors:

We were very sad to leave this chillaxing and move on to Cambodia, especially because that's when I got dengue fever.  Kate will take over the Cambodia blogging since I wasn't really participating in that part of the journey, just existing, really... barely.  Sunrise from our bungalow the morning we left:

One more pic because it was so awesome: