The 4000 Islands – Forget All Your Troubles & Maybe More…

The 4000 Islands

Have you ever landed in a new country, town or city and instantly felt overcome with clichéd positive vibes?

After we made the long (and I mean loooong) journey down to The 4000 Islands from Vientiane, we stepped off the boat onto the sandy banks of Don Det and we both immediately felt the weight of our rucksacks lift off of our shoulders. Initially, we had no plan as to how long we would stay, but once we found a guesthouse that suited our needs, we paid upfront for 7 nights. There was no way we were cutting our time here short to move onto Cambodia sooner.

The 4000 Islands area is aptly named. The Mekong River splits and creates thousands of islands, some particularly small bits of land or shrubbery you’d be a bit pushed to refer to as an island. We had decided to stay on the island of Don Det.

Don Det

Now there’s not a whole lot to do on Don Det but for us, after nearly 2 months of travelling, that was the most appealing part. I’m sure seasoned travellers are probably much better at taking care of themselves on the road. Actually, I can’t even use that as an excuse because Toby was seeking out gyms in every new place we ventured to and ordering salads whilst I was ordering pizza… But staying somewhere chilled for a whole week gave me a well-needed opportunity to develop a routine. Get up and go for walks, make some healthier food choices and get my blog up and running (hooray).

The activities available around here included tubing, but from what we saw it was a far more relaxed tubing experience when compared to the home of tubing – Vang Vieng. You could go out Kayaking on the river or take a boat trip. Bicycle hire was also prominent for a very small price.

We opted to take the bikes out and cycle across the bridge to the island next door – Don Khon. Don Khon is slightly bigger but the only real difference we found was that it hosted a couple of waterfalls which we were able to see in one day cycling around anyway.

Don Khon

Firstly, we ventured clockwise around the island where we eventually reached Khone Pa Soi waterfall. You can’t swim here, but you can admire the falls from the rather rickety suspension bridge. We tried to continue around the island in this direction but ended up at a seriously broken bridge which caused us to turn back on ourselves. Just what you want in 30+ degree heat. So fun.

Eventually, we reached Li Phi Falls a bit later in the day. You pay a small admission fee for this one but it’s worth it – especially if you plan to spend the day here. The falls are HUGE and again, it’s not like you can go and swim in them but the area is so vast that there is a nice little beach heading down to the river where the water is much calmer. I wish we’d known beforehand so we could have spent longer here chilling on the beach and swimming in the river. But our asses were in bits from the extremely bumpy cycle ride and we were eager to get home and not have to sit on any saddles for a while!

Back to Don Det…

There’s a number of bars and restaurants catering to, how shall we say… the more open-minded folk. We must have sat at a proper table only a handful of times. Think short tables and cushions. Cushions everywhere. It was genuinely a bit of a shock when we arrived in Siem Reap and walked into an air-conditioned restaurant with waiters in uniforms, proper cutlery and napkins. Like that time Peter Griffin forgot how to sit on a chair.

The food was pretty good in terms of selection and taste. We had awesome Indian food, chicken & salads, brownies and ice cream, pizza’s, pasta and of course local dishes. It’s all there on this tiny island.

We hung out at Reggae bar a few times and ended up going out on one of their organised boat trips that they run a couple times a week. Basically, you pay 50,000 kips, grab some booze and head off on a short journey to a little sandy island with nothing on it. Drink, chill, swim, play games and watch the beautiful sunset before heading back to Don Det. It is one of the most enjoyable trips we’ve done. It was so basic but so fun. A load of locals turned up at the other end of the sandbank and before long the kids were over playing games with us too.

Basically, if you’re looking to kick back for a few days, forget your worries, enjoy some sun, lay on a ‘beach’ or by a pool and lounge around in ‘reggae’ bars, Don Det is the island for you.

“Let’s save tomorrow’s troubles for tomorrow.”

-Patricia Briggs

See It With Your Own Eyes [yasr_overall_rating]