Don Det - 4000 islands?

Next we headed to Don Det - but first we had to get the Stray bus across the Mekong... On a raft of planks, as you do in SEA.....

Getting the bus on the raft

Success!

Driver and fellow strays relaxing until the next tricky bit - getting the bus back off!

Our punk rocker captain!

How many men does it take to get a bus off the 'ferry'? At least 3 with one to photograph it!

Success! We gave the driver a standing ovation!

So the main thing about Don Det is that it's an island. There are a lot of them in the Mekong at this area - however there are not 4000 so the name 4000 islands is a misnomer. The name arose from a language misunderstanding and stuck.

The other things that Don Det is known for is chillaxing by the river, tubing and hammocks! We participated of the hammocks but not the river - it's very brown at this time of year and didn't look too clean. Kitty had seen a dead pig floating in it further upriver and that was enough to put us off....

So hammock for sunset it was - and a very nice sunset it was too:

The following day we decided we needed some exercise - so we hired bikes and headed off down the island towards Don Khone where there promised to be another waterfall and perhaps some Mekong dolphins.

The path down the island was basically a track, but heavily used by the locals on motos, bikes and on foot. The wooden plank bridges across the streams were a little unnerving given that the planks moved!

We made it to the bridge across to Don Khone and to the waterfall - the waterfall is a large rapid which makes the Mekong impassable to boats from the ocean. Now the reason why there is a bridge between the 2 islands is because the French - whilst trying to defend their Indochina possessions from Thailand  - wanted to get gun boats over the rapids. With Vietnamese help they built a railway all the way from the base of Don Khone up to the top of Don Det - so the bridge was the railway bridge and the 'road' we cycled on was the old railway bed.

Waterfall

Cat at the tip of Don Khone - can you see the dolphins?! (No me neither, but you can see Cambodia in the distance!)

Water buffalo at various stages of watering & mudiness! Mud mud, mud mud, nothing quite like it for cooling the blood!

On the way back up the island for beers at a sunset bar we met a few locals on the path - one guy pushing a trolley by hand (you usually saw them hooked up to a motorbike) was very taken with my height, sunglasses and blonde hair, and having noticed that I wasn't wearing a wedding ring, said I could marry him! I just laughed and then cycled on....

Another glorious Don Det sunset -this time with beer!

Nb the accommodation on Don Det was bungalows - however not all are the same quality - we put up with concave beds in a sweat box because we were only there for 2 nights, so check out the room before you agree to take it! (We didn't have much choice being on the tour :s )