On one of the 4000 Islands

I took a bus from Vang Vieng to 4000 Islands. I was supposed to be in the ticket office at 1 p.m. for the tuk-tuk pickup. I was there on time, but it took the at least hour and half to pick me, so in the end I've forgotten my "real" white Ray Bans what made me upset, cause they were really good copy.
Whole journey took long, tuk-tuk to catch a bus, bus to Vientiane, tuk-tuk to bus station in Vientiane, sleeping bus to Pakse, another bus to Ban Nakasang pier and finally boat from the pier to Don Det. Laotian sleeping buses are different than those in Vietnam. There are only two rows of beds, but beds are doubles, so you never know with whom you are gonna end up sharing bed. I was rather lucky, as at first I had bed for myself only, until bust stopped somewhere in the middle of the night and more people get on. What's more they definitely did not have tickets, but bribed the driver. And that is why I've had Lao girl to share bed with. And those beds are not wide at all. Luckily not for long.
In Pakse at the bus station we were supposed to show our tickets for the next stop, but I've either did not get the ticket (other people on my bus going to 4000 Islands had those tickets, so how possible is that, that I did not get the ticket?) or lost it. I had only ticket to Pakse. Ticket to Don Det was gone. I would rather say I've lost it, but it was so convenient to jump on the back of people from other bus (other company) and claim with them that I've never received that ticket. For them that story was truth, for me not. Oh very convenient, that convenient that in the end tour operator did not win with six women and we got where we've wanted without paying extra money.
Island where I've stopped is Don Det, which together with Don Khon are travellers' mecca. They are connected by old arched railway bridge built by French force. Railway did not work since WWII and in fact you can see old, rusted train near the bridge.
That bridge and Tat Somphamit waterfalls (also know as Li Phi Falls, which means 'spirit trap', as locals believe bad spirits are trapped here as they wash down the stream) was my first trip destination on the island. With 2 Aussie girls who I've meet arguing about tickets and 2 Aussie guys who I've briefly met in Vang Vieng we've rented bikes and did some exercises. And after overnight bus journey that was pretty tough. Especially that bikes were not of the best quality, so was the road.
I was staying at Mr Mo's Sunrise Bungalows, where I had my own bungalow with bed and mosquito net for 30.000 Kip. To go to toiled I always had to go out and that always gave me head ache. Shall I still be paranoid and close it or leave it open and struggle with the padlock. During the night especially. I still was paranoid.
In general life here floats different. It floats together with Mekong river waters. That means slowly and lazy. There is also not much to do. Of course, from healthy activities you can do some kayaking, biking, tubing and walking, but after one day biking you've seen almost everything around, kayaking costs more than you want to spend for it and tubing is nice, bus slow as slow Mekong river is. Though it was fun too. We were eight people, just sitting in tubes, chatting and letting the river carry us.
One of the most popular activities here is lying in a hammock and reading, and this is something that occupies most of my time, unless I'm playing shit head with Johnny and Nathan, who become my really good lads here. And what I like about them so much is that they always ask if I want to come over and join them. And next they ask me why do I hang around with them all the time. But how could I refuse such invitation? I could ask the same. Why do they hang around with me all the time. In the end thought we've agreed that we are too lazy to meet any new people, so we stick to each other. And they've had sunset at their side, as they were staying at the sunset side of the islands. I was on the sun rise, but never made it for the sunrise.

Ready to go?

Old, French railroad bridge. Can you see railway tracks fence on the left hand side?

Old Locomotive that stopped operating in WWII



Don Det main street



Don Det pier and beach



School girls at Don Det

Water buffaloes having a swim

Baby water buffalo not having a swim, maybe it did not learn how to swim yet?

Shadow of a man on the edge

Too shallow

Old French railway bridge, view from Santiphab bungalows

Sunset at Don Det

Climbing in Vang Vieng

The last day that I've been in Vang Vieng we've gone climbing. There were five of us, three of us climbing. Todd and Phil had their gear with them, so we only took three motorbikes and I rented shoes. But that itself lasted forever, everything from the beginning went wrong, breakfast took ages, Todd's friend who borrowed us his harness and chalk bag was one hour late, renting motorbikes and taking petrol and renting my shoes was constantly going wrong, cause if the place was not closed for lunch brake, they did not have what we've wanted or we had to go to their second store and so one. Literally, everything from the beginning went wrong.
But in the end, we had motorbikes with petrol and we drove to the place where I wanted to rent shoes and we've lost Phil and Markus on the way and we did not find them until the end of that day. Though we've found one Aussie guy with gear who joined our climbing expedition.
The same story as with Markus and Phil was with rocks. I think that four of us who were still left we were driving about two hours around the place where rocks were supposed to be and we've never found them. That was very frustrating. So in the end we've given up and decided to go tubing. Not that we've rented tubes and went down the river. We've just driven there and went drinking. And this was exactly when we've met Markus and Phil again. It was a little bit tricky to drink and drive later on (at least for the drivers) but nothing has happened, except broken line, in Todd's motorbike, connecting tachometer with the wheel. He locked it and forgot about it. But still it's costed him only 60.000 kip in the rental place, which was nothing to get his passport back.
Next step after coming back was to have a dinner and go for goodbye party as Todd and me were leaving the next day. I was going to 4000 Islands and he to Chiang Mai. We've formed surprisingly big party crew. It's even difficult to tell who those people where and how we've started to talk to them, but that did not matter at all. It's mattered even less when someone has found five bags of weed in one of the cushions at our table. Everyone remained silent about it. It was a little bit like we were part of the conspiracy theory. Does not matter if we were or not, at the end cushions were empty.


Searching for rocks



Is it possible elsewhere than in Laos to have a nice sleep in a bar?

Yoooooooo

Here you don't need your own lighter. Lighters are glued to the walls, to make sure that you will not lose it

Goodbye bucket

New Year's Eve in the tubing

I've started my trip towards New Years Party on 27th from Bangkok. I got to Vientiane, town studded with crumbling French mansions, bougainvillea­-blooming streets and steaming noodle stalls. It is somewhere between a big town and a diminutive city. I've spent there one day, did some sightseeing, one night and took a bus to Vang Vieng, which is a town nestled beside the Nam Song (Song River) amid stunningly beautiful limestone karts terrain. Most of the people coming here come here for tubing, chilling out in restaurants/bars playing endless reruns of Friends or Family Guy on their big screens. There is also some climbing here and caves to visit.
I've arrived here a little bit sick, still from the freezing cold bus trip to Vientiane, so my first day and sight were rather calm and relaxing, just to get better. To be ready for tubing on 31st and good party to enter New Year smoothly.
And indeed tubing was so awesome. I must say that I've loved it. It was even better cause we were bunch of funny people. Two of my friends who I met before - Markus from Sweden and Todd from Canada. There was that US boy and couple from Russia, but they've been living in California for over than 20 years. Unfortunately Natasha was not feeling too well after last night vodka party, so she must have skipped tubing, Marcus got completely wasted after a while so our group shrinked, but we meet other people, as always...
Whole day we've spent dancing, jumping to the water from huge swings, zip lines and slides, playing mud volleyball, drinking buckets and free shots, talking, tubing and all the crazy shit that you can imagine.
We had to be ready at 6 p.m. not to lose deposit that we've paid for tubes, but anyway it was too cold to stay longer, so we tubed down and took tuk-tuk to the town.
After quick shower we went to have some food and continue partying, first in Q-Bar, than in Rock Bar at the island, where I've managed to lost Natasha and Andrei, as we've lost all the others in Q-Bar already anyway. But I've met there that Polish girl who was a lot of rock'n'roll and who I think was the nicest Polish person that I've met during my whole trip so far (not that I've met so many of them).
I've had funny situation too with some Italian guys. During tubing I've realised that I know one Italian guy from Siem Reap so we've started to talk, but there was that other guy so similar to him, so I was getting confused all the time. So imagine I'm in a bar, I see that guy and I start talking to him, after a while I realise that he's not the guy that I thought he is, so I try to explain myself and say, that there is that other lad who is so similar to you, he could be your brother. And here he comes: "I'm his brother". That was insane. So funny.
I think that I've went to bed around 6 in the morning. That would mean that I had 18 hours of partying. I have no clue how it is possible but apparently it is, though the next day was rubbish. I did nothing. Just hanging around with friends and trying to survive till the evening to go to bed.

Vientiane - Wat Si Saket, the oldest temple in Vientiane build in 1818 by king Anouvong

Buddhas in Wat Si Saket - the oldest temple in Vientiane

Buddhas in Vientiane. This one is in Haw Pha Kaew, museum which has the best collection of Buddha images in Laos. To tell you the truth I was not impressed at all.

Lost in Vientiane. There was also lost cock

Party crew in Vang Vieng, starting from the left: Andrei, Natasha, me, Todd and Markus

On the way to tubing

In the tubing with Andrei and Willy

In the tubing with Lao boy who was throwing us ropes to get us to the bar

In the tube with a bucket

New Year's Eve with locals

Confusing Italian boys

Polish style

First sunset in 2011