Entering Laos and Serene Don Khong Island,

We left Cambodia and entered Laos (The Lao PDR--People's Democratic Republic) On Saturday, February 22.  The boarder crossing was almost empty so it only took us about a half hour to cross, much easier than when we entered Cambodia.

I forgot to mention that because of the size of the visas for Cambodia, Lao, and Vietnam, my travel partner was going to run out of pages before the end of her trip.  So with the help of our amazing CEO of GAdventures, in Phnom Penh she managed to get an appointment and get extra pages added to her passport (for $80?) and have room for the visas.  You can see that the Cambodian visa was a full page long and the entry and exit stamp took up a lot of space too.  Here I am below turning in my passport to be stamped for exit from Cambodia and a little extra "propina" for the official processing the exit.

 We were able to easily get our visa to enter Lao at the border, but interestingly, prices varied depending on the country.  US citizens pay $40 (cash) to enter plus another dollar or two for the "help" in processing.  There are 5 Communist countries in the world today.  In addition to Laos, they are Cuba, North Korea, China, and Vietnam.  Those 4 only have to pay $20 to get a visa to enter Laos.  For some reason, the Swiss do not have to pay to get a visa.  Neither do a few other Asian countries such as the Philippines.

One of 2 sheets at the border explaining cost of visas

While waiting for our Lao visas, a huge butterfly/moth rested on a traveler's bag

Official entry into Laos after getting our visas

Most of the time we traveled in a mini-van that held about 20 or 22 passengers, but for a short time this day we had a full-sized bus.

Pheng, Our guide for the next 2.5 days.

Laos is a country of 6.8 million people in 18 provinces totally 236,800 square kilometers (about 91,000 square miles).  .  Vieniene has been the capital for many years.  It has about a half million people.  Laos is land locked, so is not a good place to eat shellfish.  The people are laid back and friendly and the country is quite mountainous.  The Thai and Lao languages are very similar so the speaker of one can understand the other language.  There are 14 ethnic sub-groups in Lao.  Animism is a main religion, especially in the countryside.  There are many Chinese products in Laos, often copies of things made in the US.  The main export is hydroelectric power, then coffee, corn, and teak.  The roads were noticeably much better than in Cambodia so I didn't suffer from all the dust, but soon I would suffer from the smoke.

Along the way we had a bathroom stop and were charged 1,000 kip for toilet paper and to use the bathroom.    At one place a little girl about 8 helped her dad pass out the TP.

There are a bit more than 8,000 kip to the dollar.

Worth about 25 cents US

 The top bill could be confusing.  The amount was 2,000 kip.  The # in the lower right corner was in Lao.

 The amount for the bill above was 100,000 kip (or a bit more than $12).  The number in the lower right corner again was in Lao.

Above, the back of a 50,000 kip bill (or a bit over $6 US).  It was easy to be a millionaire in kip as that as a total of about US $124.

Lao beer is very cheap and made from rice.  I tried it and preferred the Cambodian beer that I had tried the day before.  Most of the cattle is used to plow fields and sometimes for meat, but definitely are not dairy cattle.  .  In order for the cattle to fill out , they need to be washed 3 times a week to remove dust and parasites and to be covered with mosquito netting at night and be by a fire.    Kakada had been a cowboy so he remembers doing some of this when he was younger.

We were going to spend the afternoon and evening on Dong Khong Island.  To get there, we had to cross the river on a raft.  There was a store and someone selling palm fruit just before getting on the raft.

Pile of palm fruit up close

Cutting the palm fruit from its shell

Selling bags of palm fruit

Cigarettes are cheap, from 75 to 85 cents a box,  and have no health warnings on them.

Below is a raft with motorcycles who just crossed to the mainland from the island.

The raft to take us across, pushed by a tug boat

Most of us got off the bus to go on a the raft.  There was a traffic jam at that time a day with a number of vehicles needed to go across.  The two buses waited for another raft--maybe larger?

The tug

Standing on the raft as we crossed the river

The tug pushing

A bridge is being built to connect the island to the mainland, which will eliminate the need for the raft and tug business.....unless the bridge is flooded., which has happened elsewhere.

Pheng  told us this area in southern Laos us called the area of 4,000 islands, and it is very serene.  Some flood in rainy season.  The Don Khong Island, where we were heading, is the largest river on the Mekong (in Laos?) and is 24 km by 8 km (14 miles x 4.8 miles).  People have lived on the islands since the 17th century.     Here is an interesting article on the area that I found on the web:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/laos/10106730/Southern-Laos-time-out-in-the-4000-Islands.html    and another at:
http://www.asienreisender.de/siphandon.html

This area is where the Mekong is the widest and during the rainy season can be up to 9 miles wide.

Don Khong Island is the central area for the islands and has a hospital (maybe large clinic really?), school, etc.  There is a legend that when a king was murdered by opponents, monks took his son and fled to this island, and later the boy became king at age 13.  The literacy rate on this island is quite high compared to other places in Laos.  There has been no Lao king since 1946, and the island was the home to second president of Laos.  He asked the Chinese government for help in building the 750 m. long bridge to the island as pictured above. 

Map of some of the islands including the biggest, Don Khong

Don Khong Island has about 15,000 people living here.  It has few tourists and those that do come tend not to be the younger crowd.  The tourist area is mainly one one street (a dirt road) with some nice small hotels and guest houses and al fresco restaurants.

We stayed at Pon's River Guest House and Restaurant.  It was nice, simple, nice wooden carvings with 18 rooms that had mosquito netting over the beds.  We really didn't need them as the windows were closed as the rooms had air conditioning.  Only one person in our group seemed to get mosquito bites.

The place was very nice and peaceful.  The small lobby had a huge bottle of purified water for us to take in addition to the standard two bottles in our room.  The hotel restaurant (al fresco) was across the street above the river and we were told it was one of the better places to have dinner on the island, so be had dinner and breakfast there. It was the one breakfast that was not included with our hotel on the trip.

Richard and Janet having a snack before dinner

Cheap Lao rice bear

Chicken or Fish Laap, the National Lao dish, a kind of cold salad made of chicken, fish, or pork and lots of mint. 

It also was flavored with fish sauce and lime juice.  It was best for me to ask for it not spicy!  It is usually served with sticky rice,  a type of rice grown mainly in SE and E Asia, which has opaque grains, very low amylose  content, and is especially sticky when cooked.  About 85% of Lao rice production is sticky rice. I think it requires less water to cultivate and can be grown in the mountain regions of Laos.

Janet about to enjoy a banana crepe with honey on top

I was the only one to get up very early for sunrise the next day although two followed about 15 minutes later.  I really enjoyed sitting in the restaurant, listening to the quiet sounds of morning (before the motorcycles made an appearance), seeing boats go to and from the mainland, and watching the sky.

Morning street sweeper

Empty dining room around sun rise

Some of the tiny islands in the area, probably covered with water in the rainy season

Peaceful morning

Two in boat motoring to the mainland for work early

After breakfast, I got a ride with a guy from the hotel  on the back of his motorcycle  to try to find throat lozenges or a face mask...cannot remember which...but it had been years since I had been on the back of a motorcycle and it was a lot of fun!
 Most of the group went for a bike ride after breakfast on the dirt road toward the end of the island and to the one (newly opened) ATM.  I had not ridden a bike in more than 25 years and also was not feeling well again (darn sinuses!) so opted to go for a walk with 2 others instead.  I think it cost under $2 to rent the bikes (no gears, btw).

I heard afterwards that the dirt road was bumpy but flat.

Kakada and others crossing the bridge near the hotel

Here are some of the things we saw on our walk.

Monks at the entry to the local Wat

There were a lot of burial stupas in much variety in the temple rounds, including the following:

Close up of ornate geometric design on stupa above

Note snakes and alligators on roof of wat:

Information place, closed?

Close up of pretty flower--buganvilla--love my new camera!

Working cattle grazing, including calf

Small store

Happy boy in Angry Birds outfit

Golden Buddha on hill across river on mainland

A pig having breakfast

Dishes for TV reception

  

 I would have been happy to stay another day to rest and recouperate from the Killing Fields emotionally and traveling physically, but we were off to another site.

When we headed back to the mainland, there was a bit of traffic including the following:

A bike filled with misc. items for the home

A truck with bricks for construction and 3 young workers