Don Det, Laos

Don Det, Laos

Every traveller we met in Thailand said the same thing. Cambodia is amazing. Vietnam is amazing. Ah but Laos is something special. We visited Cambodia first out of the 3 and loved it. Laos was second on our journey and after seeing the highly endangered river dolphins in Kratie, Cambodia, Laos had a lot to live up to.

Boy, oh boy did it live up to it. This is what greeted us when we entered the 4,000 islands. Most travellers stay on either Don Det or Don Khon. We decided on the former and really enjoyed our stay. Don Det has to be one of the most chilled out places we have ever visited. We hired a bungalow right on the Mekong and would laze our days away reading books, sleeping and watching the world go by on the river.

The only time we saw anybody break into a sweat was when our bungalow owner decided that one of our hammocks was way too shabby. It looked fine to us but he wouldn’t have it and insisted that Karen get off it so he could replace it. You have to love a nation that takes care of its hammocks. The old adage goes that the Vietnamese plant the rice, the Cambodians watch it grow and the Laotians listen to it grow. That sums up the Laotians perfectly. They are so chilled and are never in a hurry. I call them the “Asian Caribbeans”.

Don Det is a great place to unwind and recharge the batteries, especially if you are on a long trip. A word of warning though. When you order food in one of its cafes, be prepared to wait. When I say wait, I mean take a book kind of waiting. We saw a Japanese man start singing and talking to himself he waited so long. Bless him. In the end, he still had time to walk to his accommodation and get a book and sit back down at his table. It’s the Laotian way, there is no point in getting wound up about it. Just open up another Beer Laos and kick back. Just like the locals.