Si Phan Don - 4000 islands

The number of islands varies with the season - and the height of the Mekong - but there are definitely thousands of them. We stayed on Don Khong - the largest one - not as popular as Don Khon and Don Det but definitely a great place to relax. Mr Pon's Guesthouse was our home for 5 days and I think we ate in his restaurant at least 5 times. Don Khong is very relaxed and most visitors are there for a day or so on their way south to the smaller islands which attract mostly backpackers.

We managed one day trip by boat to see the waterfalls at Somphamit and Khon Phapheng which prevented the French from developing a trade route to China along the Mekong in the 19th Century and a couple of cycle trips around the island but otherwise managed to relax on the riverside deck at the guesthouse.

On our trip to Don Khon we discovered that Elvis is alive and well and travelling in Laos while our fellow travellers complained that the noodles that they had for lunch must have been made with 'virtual' chicken since there was no obvious sign of the real thing. We have met quite a few interesting people on our travels and the German man who joined us on this trip was full of stories of his 30 years of travelling in Thailand and Laos - he has enjoyed it so much that he is planning to retire to Northern Thailand because his pension will go a lot further there than in Munich and the opium is cheaper! There was also a Dutch couple, a pair of Belgians and a Swedish backpacker who all ended up with us at Mr Pon's restaurant for dinner when we got back - think this was the biggest bar bill of our trip (at least until we meet Jimmy C!)