day 220, Don Det

The usual pleasant start to the morning, then to the beach and the café for a drink and a read. As Andy, Miya and Deem were heading off to Cambodia tomorrow we thought we’d celebrate, or Miya thought that and set about making buckets. We got some empty water bottles, cut them in half, filled them with ice, poured in a bottle of whiskey, M-150 (which is like a bastardised version of red bull, it’s fucking dangerous and it’s motto is “Courage, Devotion, Sacrifice”) coke and limes, followed the bucket etiquette of when sharing buckets through straws looking each other in the eyes and got battered.  Played some Frisbee with some Israelis, went through another 2 whiskey bottles and walked back just after the sunset worse for wear. Somehow showered and got changed and went off for Indian after a bit of a drunken lie down on the beach, built a bonfire and sat around, two more whiskey bottles were consumed and had a great night looking up at the almost full moon, at times there were two of them and they were moving. After taking it in turns to pass out I dragged myself to bed, woke up around sometime in the dead of the night for a piss and ran into Deem who was just coming in, but he’s not a party animal…

day 219, Don Det

I’m bloody loving island life. Wake up when the sun heats your room to a unbearable level, mooch downstairs to have breakfast with your friends and swap doxy dream stories, play with the cutest little puppies, read a bit then head off to the beach, sit down and read, go on samosa runs, go swimming, play a bit of volleyball in the river, head back, shower and play cards, head off for dinner, then go to a bar and chill out with some drinks, cards and pool, then back  to the rooms to sit down and chat and retire to our private rooms.

day 218, Don Det

To maximise the use of our bridge passes to Don Khon  we had another day on the bikes. It was bloody scorching, rode straight across the island where you could see Cambodia (we think), sat in a hammock sipping at an ice coffee reading while some of the others went for a dip. I fell off my bike a bit out of sheer rubbish-ness going across a little bridge which wasn’t too fun though no real harm done, bar bruising and/of pride. We followed the old railway where the tracks have been completely salvaged as fences and the like, all that was left were lots of rocks. No surprises that one of us got a puncture, Deem got it fixed in a village, then following the railway, which having read the little exhibit where they built the railway in order to transport two steam gunships, and having seen the picture made the feat even more impressive, my basket on my bike sheared clean off. No bother as Andy had a screwdriver and Graeme dismantled it, carried on where we found a suspension bridge over a little waterfall/rapid then onwards home, dropped the bike off and back out to dinner which was fantastic, there isn’t a lot of choice out here and the Indian is the cheapest and tastiest, double garlic naan’ed it for the win. Retreated to the pool bar for card games of switch and shithead, played a bit of pool where I hit a purple patch and beat andy, then, dying on our feet went to bed.

the view of the rapid from the suspension bridge

what is left of the log flume, parts are scattered all around the island

day 217, Don Det

Feeling fresh Irish Dave came round to meet us for breakfast before getting a bike and cycling to Don Khon. The bikes were shit and fixed gear though was good fun, we ended up at a waterfall which was bloody impressive, I’ve never seen such a one like it, adversely to a single cascade there were loads of them over quite a broad area and was amazing just to sit and watch, then onto the beach where read more of my book, grabbed something to eat and read a bit about the Mekong railway which was interesting. From there cycled home stopping off to watch a local fish (the verb, not the noun), returned the bike and back to the sunset bar for a if possible better sunset then the day before, the sort you get on postcards where the lone fisherman is going about his business in silhouette. . Played some cards and went out for dinner and a quiet evening, once curfew came round sat in our balcony thing chatting away the evening

day 216, Don Det

Felt like the death today so discarded the bike idea in favour of more of the same, again went to the beach and read my book and fell asleep listening to some tunes. Back to the bar to sit down then again at the Indian as it was so tasty, then back to the bar to play pool which was good fun, played killer which surprise surprise andy the pool shark won, met some more people and went to bed earlyish

day 215, Don Det

Had the intention of getting a bike and actually seeing the other island though that idea drifted away due to the heat and general laziness. Again we ended up at the bar just to chill out, played some pool and read more of my book which I’m really enjoying. Went for a dip in the water before being attacked by the local young children playing which was great fun, growling and chasing each other before being force fed sand and showing them how to make sandcastles.  Once they tired us out we went to the sunset bar to watch the fabulous sunset , bloody gorgeous, before showering and going to an Indian for food which was marvellous. We then went to the pai in lao bar where we drank some more and played poker which was really good fun, I came an aggressive second to Deem who walked away with a wad of money (we had each collected as much as possible in 1000kip notes, so he walked away with a ball money the size of his fist, we didn‘t really think it through) before that bar closing and going to the beach to drink, where we had another dip and sitting around enjoying ourselves.

day 214, Dondet

Another gorgeous day at the beginning of the new year. Again had breakfast at our little café at the place, again with the spring rolls, walked into town to grab a bottle of water and ended up at a pool bar where we had the place pretty much to ourselves, I got spanked by andy who has emerged as a pool shark after being total wank for the first couple of games, had some cookies and a chat then met up with everyone to go on a sunset cruise. Unfortunately irish dave wasn’t feeling too great so he gave it a miss, so it were me, andy, m, Graeme, miya, deem, joel and becca. We got some food for the boat, met the bloke who was bringing inflated inner tubes and took us to our boat, which were 2 boats tied together with a platform on with a speaker. Plugged my ipod in and sat down cruising through the river which was a “fuck me” moment, this place if ridiculously pretty. It drove for about 25 minutes then we arrived at a little island where 5 people were on it with another boat, joined with them, 3 of whom we had met before, and went for a swim. Me and Miya sat in tubes natting and before we knew it we had been dragged away, despite admittedly futile attempts at swimming back the boat had to come pick us up. We then got driven up stream and lazed about in a tube drifting back to the beach, before back on board the boat and to another island where you could see the sunset which was out of this world, a couple of joints were going round and we just sat there looking at the sunset talking. As it was getting dark back on the boat and drove home in the darkness looking at the stars, was an amazing afternoon/evening. After a shower we all met back up for dinner, had a curry which was awesome, sat in the bar again for people to have pancakes before turning in.