Louden in Laos

After my mammoth journey myself and Rachel, the girl I'd met on one of the buses, sat by the river to enjoy a well deserved BeerLao and waited for my friends to arrive. Don Det is one of the '4000 islands' in the south of Laos and whilst the country doesn't have any coastlines it certainly makes up for it with the sprawling Mekong River that runs through it. After reuniting with my friends, Vic and Evie, who I'd met in Thailand, we all found a room to share and had a catch up over dinner. We'd heard there was a Lao festival happening nearby so the following day we took a long-tail boat with a group of people and joined in the celebrations with the locals. Before we left we were briefed about local etiquette and behaviour; we weren't allowed to show our shoulders or knees, we HAD to accept any alcoholic drink offered to us as it's considered extremely rude to decline (I like this rule), any men caught sleeping with a Lao women would be fined $500 or put in prison and any female tourists caught 'cavorting' with Lao men would legally have to marry them! After the recent run of schizophrenic weather in Thailand it had been constantly sunny and clear in Laos and today was no different as we puttered up the river to a temple on the bank of a neighbouring island which was the setting for the festival. We watched dragon boat races, taught local children how to high-five, drank beer and danced in the temple grounds and sampled many of the local (ultra cheap) delicacies they had to offer on street stalls including Lao noodles, sweet lentil and sesame balls and colourful ice treats. After the festival we took the boat to a nearby river 'beach' where we listened to music, went for a swim and drank a few more bottles BeerLao as the sun set over the Mekong.

Boat races.

I was offered many drinks by the locals. Potential new husbands?

These are my favourite Laos street food snack.

Rachel stayed with me and the two girls, Evie and Vic, for a few days.

Yet another gorgeous sunset on my travels!

Let me give you a little background detail before I tell you about the following day; after almost six months of travelling I don't ever really feel homesick and there isn't much I miss about England apart from my family and my friends (A LOT!) however I am starting to have major cravings for certain foods that I just can't get out here, namely European cheese (I'm talking about the strong stuff, smellier the better - what I wouldn't do to have a plateful of cheese that smells like feet!) and also I'm having severe, debilitating, painful separation anxiety over roast dinners. Imagine my excitement when the owner of Happy Bar on Don Det, our go-to guy for all things fun related, said he was organising a trip tubing down the river to a roast dinner! So, we donned our tubes (actually the inner rubber of a tyre), and with beers in tow we cruised down the river for hours in a big group to the restaurant run by an English man; I know, I know, I should come travelling to immerse myself in local culture (which I have done to a great extent) but after this long there's only so much rice, spice and weird stuff I can handle!

The edges of the islands we passed.

Happy!

Tubing!

Don Det island is perfect for a morning run before it gets too hot - Vic and I ran through the village and had to compete for the path with chickens and dogs.

We were able to interact a little with the locals on Don Det and learn about their way of life. The island families join together in big groups and sit on their porches to eat dinner whilst the children are generally watched over by everyone and so have the freedom to run and play around the island. Their community seems to be a very happy and thriving one. The beautiful setting, tiny size of the island, absence of roads and cars and more importantly the absence of the lairy 'party' tourists - due to the 11pm closure of all bars - means that the island has a relaxed vibe unrivalled on any of the islands I have visited recently.

We spotted a tiny baby in a swinging basket being watched over by an almost-as-tiny toddler and their mother encouraged us to take a photo. 

The island is long and thin so every home/hotel/restaurant on one side gets treated to an incredible sunrise each morning and everyone on the other side gets sunsets like this every evening.