While in Vang Vieng, we interpreted some information wrong about where the largest waterfall in Asia is located. We thought it was right near Pakse, Laos so we hopped on a bus and reserved a hotel. Turns out, the waterfall is a couple hours further south in the 4000 Islands region. The bus to Pakse was not typical because it was actually a “sleeping” bus. I’m not sure who invented this concept but it is a terrible idea especially in Laos where most roads are unpaved dirt tracks. Simply put, there was a mattress instead of seat. You shared this mattress with whoever was next to you so if you weren’t traveling with a companion you would be sleeping with a stranger. On top of that, all night long you are being bounced around so no matter how you sleep you are bound to be rolling around. And there are no seatbelts.

Pakse was an interesting city. First, we got off the bus and walked to our hotel only to find out that the location online was completely incorrect. We walked around the area where all three of our online maps placed the hotel for almost an hour to no avail. We hopped on a tuk tuk but the driver didn’t know the hotel either. After finding some of his buddies who seemed to know, we finally found it several miles away from where the maps pointed. Second, it was a good sized city but was a ghost town during the day. There was one small block that had restaurants and it was hard to find a shop where we could buy drinking water. Since there was not much to do, we spent the day resting and catching up on life.

The next morning we continued traveling south to the correct location for the waterfall, the 4000 Islands. We opted to stay on the island of Don Det because it’s popular with backpackers therefore cheaper than the other islands. The bus dropped us off at a station outside of Naka Sang, the closest town on the mainland. We then had to walk to the river to find the ferry to Don Det.

It’s neat to be in a landlocked country on an island and surrounded by palm trees. Don Det started out as the main economic link between the lower Mekong river and the upper river, but now it’s just a backpacker hotspot. Walking around the town you can see remnants of the French and Japanese empires as they tried to beat the river rapids by traveling through the islands.

We didn’t have a place reserved before we arrived so we just walked down the street asking each guesthouse if they had availability. Even though every place looked almost identical (a small room with a fan and a bed), we didn’t commit until we were almost halfway down the island and way out of town.

The next morning we walked back into town, which was a lot further then I had remembered, to rent bicycles. $2 later we had bikes for the entire day! Our plan was to bike south and cross an old railroad bridge to the neighboring island, Don Khon. This island has several waterfalls as well as a beach that we were trying to visit. After crossing the bridge, we were stopped by the local troll, I mean toll collector (we frequently came across tolls in Laos which were unexpected so we joked they were trolls). The ride was pleasant and we found a few waterfalls, a beach and even some water buffalo when we got lost!

Since we were so far away from town, the next night we decided to move closer to the action and found a nice looking bungalow on the sunset side of the island. Even though the owner said they had wifi, it was conveniently “not working” all four days we were there. Luckily, she had the passwords for adjacent networks.

A warning to any backpackers visiting Don Det: there are no ATM’s on the island! We didn’t learn this until we were already stuck on the island. Every guesthouse and travel agent offers to give your money from your credit card for a small 6% fee or offers to hire you a boat across to the mainland to visit an ATM for about the same cost. We started to get creative as we quickly ran out of cash, but had a lucky break when our kayaking tour made an extra stop at the ATM!

Speaking of the kayaking trip, it was a full day tour which turned out to be one of the best tours we have been on so far. It was packed with sightseeing creating limited downtime (even seemed to spend more time at each location than the other kayaking trips we saw). Lunch was included and it was a tasty fresh BBQ. It felt more like a fun day kayaking than a normal tour. The only down side was that I was starting to get sick (maybe I ate something or had too many brownies). Otherwise, it was a great day. Enjoy the video I compiled:

For our last day in Don Det, we relaxed in our bungalow to allow time for my stomach to recover. With hammocks on the porch and a beautiful sunset view next door, it was a easy place to relax.

Next stop: Siem Ream, Cambodia