Si Phan Don, aka the Four Thousand Islands, is beautiful. Right on the border with Cambodia, it consists of a whole bunch of islands, outcrops, mini beaches and rocks in the Mekong.
I stayed on Don Det, the most backpacker friendly of the islands. You arrived by boat from Nakasang at the tiny beach on the North of the island, where there is a mini town and from there you have the choice, sunrise side or sunset side.
My only requirement for accommodation was a bungalow on the sunset side with a great view and a hammock. Success was achieved. Very basic but all I needed.
As well as a French girl I’d met on the bus my neighbours for the first few days were another French girl and 2 Italian guys, who were all really nice and really helped make my stay extra fun. There was a restaurant as part of our place too which did great breakfasts. Every morning was all of us lazing about for 2 hours, lying on the cushions for breakfast and then finally moving to the hammocks afterwards till lunchtime.
Whilst the vast majority of my 6 days on Don Det was either spent in my hammock or lounging in restaurants, I did manage to do a few other the things!
Me and Jana walked around the entire of Don Det, which took a couple of hours, it’s a very pleasant and chilled out place.
There’s a couple of bars of note, Adams Bar and the Reggae bar, both ‘happy’ friendly, and also a Friends cafe in similarity to Vang Vieng. There are nice restaurants dotted all over both sides, though particularly on the sunset side. Crazy Gecko restaurant is a little bit more pricey but does really good Western Food as well as Laos. Oh and if your on Don Det for any amount of time you must try a pumpkin burger.
Me, my bungalow neighbour’s, Jana, Arnd (who caught back up with us after his treetop explorer fun) Diallo and Lena (see Konglor post, cool to hang with them on Don Det) took a boat trip to see the sunset and it was spectacular!! Our boatsman took us all through the islands and found a nice beach for us to view from.
As we headed back the sky turned even more beautiful.
I also saw Goody again on Don Det, hadn’t seen her since Chiang Rai so nice to catch up! We ended up at a bungalows where a couple guys had a camp fire and a nice gathering of people.
A big highlight was when me and Katie (who I’d met in Vientiane) took a walk over to Don Khon, which is connected to Don Det by an old French railway bridge. We walked to the fantastic Somphamit Waterfalls, and the down to the beach where we chilled out on the rocks for a bit.
After 6 days on Don Det I am happy to say I was very relaxed and content, will always remember this place fondly!
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