Sunday, December 18, 2005

Island Hopping And Elephant Riding

Here we are in Si Pan Don (literal translation 4000 islands), in the biggest island Don Khong. I say biggest, which it is by a long way, but Don Khong is only 18Km long by 8Km wide. We now, as we cycled round the island today.

Yesterday we left Champasak. The night before we'd got talking to a German couple and a Dutch couple stying the same guest house as us. We'd discussed whether we could go elephant riding in a village not too far from Champasak, and on the way to Si Pan Don. On our won it wasn't really feasible, but the Dutch couple wanted to go too. Sharing the costs the whole thing became a reality.

So early yesterday morning we got 2 motorbike taxis arranged by our guest house owner. A ferry ride over the Mekong on a ferry that was basically 3 boat hulls lashed together with planks on-top, then 30 or so Km along route 13 until we came to a dirt road. The dirt road took us to a village in the middle of nowhere, here Sam got to fulfil a life-long dream of riding on an elephant.

They took us up to a hillside where there is a supposedly old temple built from volcanic stone. The whole landscape looked bizarre, so deserted, and not unlike the surface of the moon. We happened to get the elephant with wind issues, he constantly farted throughout the journey. Now knowing what an elephant fart smells like will stay with me for a long time. It was good to ride an elephant this way, rather than on some big tourist trail. You could see that in maybe a few year time the place would be geared up for tourists, we had experienced this just at the right time.

We got dropped off sfter the elephant riding, on the junction to route 13 heading south. There we waited to grab any vehicle heading that way. A pick-up stopped and asked if we wanted a lift. We agreed a $2 cost each and climbed in the back. The pck-up happened to be that of a local butcher, so we rode along with a basket of beef in the back, for about 50Km until we reached the village where we could get the ferry to Si Pan Don.

We arrived in Don Khong in the mid-afternoon, and soon found a fantastic guest house facing the Mekong. A big room with a balcony looking over the Mekong was a bargin ay $7. Plus we got a hot shower, which is a bit of a bonus here.

Like I say, today we cycled around the island. Apart from that its been a lazy island life day. Tomorrow we head for Don Det, which is one of the smaller islands in the south of the island cluster. Here we will nor be able to email or anything, they do not have electricity for a start. Here in Don Khong it costs 1000 kip a minute to use the internet, which usually gets you 10 minutes on the mainland.

After a day and a night in Don Det, then we will head for the Cambodian border. An days travel to Karse (or something like that), and then on to Phenom Phen. The next blog opportunity will probably be in Karse. I feel a little nervous going into Cambodia. Its a language thing. Here we now get told by Lao people that we have good Lao, spoken with a northern Lao accent it appears. Not knowing a language and having to start from scratch will be strange.

Last night we got talking to a Lao guy who has lived in England for the last 36 years. It was his first time in Laos since he was 4 years old. He is originally from Lunag Prabang, and was the one who told us spoke Lao with a northern Laos accent. It was wierd explaining to a Lao native the state of his country, and what we had leanred since we had been here. He was really truly pleased to talk to us and learn from us. We exchanged emails, and he would like to organise the Lao people in England, to help through aid and such, Laos. We said to stay in touch and we would help him in what way we could. We said goodbye with a hug, which is a big thing for Asian people who are not usually so.

Anyway, I'm clock watching... It's time for me to get off the net. Sam is back at the guest house reading, I think I will join her. I'm working rapidly through Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas, Hunter S Thompson's drug fueled rampage through the American Dream.

1 Comments:

At 7:04 PM, Blogger The Paranoid Mod said...

Good holiday reading there. I read Ken Kesey's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test while on a bus through Guatemala, recommended if you can find a copy out there!

mod.

 

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