4000 Islands

So our original plan was to go from Vientiane to Pakse and spend a day or two there as Will mentioned. We got the overnight bus which actually was a sleeper bus where we had our own beds! This sounds great at first but then picture Will and me sharing a bunk that is designed to fit the small body frames of Asian people for 12 hours. Not so comfortable. The beds were about a foot too short and we were practically laying on top of each other. Despite the fact that we got no sleep I think I would take that set up over the regular bus seat any day. When we arrived in Pakse we decided we didn't want to stay after all. I'm not sure how/why/when this decision was made but as soon as we stepped off the bus we walked to the counter and bought another ticket to continue our journey to the 4,000 Islands (another 4 hours south). When we finally arrived there we were tired and hungry so we quickly found a guest house on the island of Don Khong (the largest of all the islands) and rested briefly. Our next move was to rent bicycles and tour around the island for the afternoon. We were originally planning on going around the entire island but after about 7 minutes of peddling on uncomfortable bikes in the afternoon heat we decided the short loop would be more than enough. It still took us just over an hour and despite the heat and our sore butts it was a very scenic bike ride. When we returned to our guest house we had little motivation to do anything so we decided to do nothing. We went to a restaurant overlooking the river and ate/read/played backgammon for a few hours. We attempted to go for another hour bike ride after our relaxation session to see the sunset but only made it about 20 minutes before returning to the comfort of our guesthouse. The rest of the night was very uneventful...more food, more reading, more games then off to bed. Oh we did book a ferry boat (when I say ferry I mean little wooden canoe with a engine that looks like it could sink at any moment) to Don Det which is another island a bit farther south of our current location.

-RBC