Border crossing to Cambodia 柬寮边界

Today I will continue my conquest of Cambodia. I woke up pretty early today as I'll be leaving Laos by boat and bus. I bought the bus ticket to Phnom Penh ($30 or 230,000K) yesterday. It is so freaking expensive! It just cost slightly more than the price of sleeper bus from Vientiane and Pakse. It cost more than the boat trip from Huay Xai to Luang PraBang! The only difference it included the boat transfer from Don Det to Ban Nakasang pier. (My trip later in Vietnam I met few Malaysians, they admitted that traveling in Cambodia is really expensive!) 

It was one of the most toughest roller coaster bus ride! We spent our whole day on the bus. 

My Itinerary was as the following :

- Walking to the river pier @ Don Det island

- Catching the boat to mainland @ Ban Nakasang town

- Waiting and settling the Cambodia Visa
- Taking a minivan from Ban Nakasang to Lao border @ Dong Kalaw (8am-10am)

- Walking across Cambodian border @ Trapeang Kriel
- Taking the Cambodian bus to Phnom Penh (12pm-9pm)
- Taking a tuk-tuk to White River II Guesthouse

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All of us took a boat from the sunset side pier at 8 a.m sharp, surprisingly they were really punctual. The boat soon left the pier and headed to the same Ban Nakasang pier. After getting off from the boat, we were informed to wait at the same bus terminal again. This is the time to settle all the Visas and "border fee". Amongst the backpackers, I was the only person that exempted from paying visa fees since I have a Malaysian passport. However, from what I recalled, there is an exit clearance fee that is compulsory to be paid to the bus agent. (25,000KIP=US$3). My remaining Lao money was placed in between the departure card and passport. 

All different passports are categorized on table.  

Bus ticket to Phnom Penh.

We were arranged to take this mini van to get to the Lao border.

Don Khon Island Day Trip @ 4000 Islands (Part 2) 東闊島

On the next day, I just thought of staying another night in here since I didn't have much Kip left. If I need more local money, the only way is to go for “ATM Service by boat”. After yesterday’s incident, I was paranoid if this method is safe too. I have almost lost my confidence with the villagers here. I did not really plan where to go so I just follow the flow. I knew most of the traveler spots are located in Don Khon island so the best way to explore it is by bicycle.

My itinerary was as following :

- Rent a bicycle @ Don Det
- Ride to the French bridge @ Don Khon (2-3km)
- Ride to Li Phi waterfall
- Lunch by the river
- Dolphin watching
- Tubing

The view of a Lao kampong from my chalet. One thing I noticed they prefer to build taller stilt houses for living where as the low houses (chalets) are meant for the backpackers. My own understanding on such stilt houses built is to withstand any big floods during the wet season. But the height of the pillars are way too high, I supposed they are going to renovate the bottom floor for other usage. 

Don Det island is small enough that you can walk. But in order to reach Don Khon island, riding a bicycle is essential especially under the midday sun. 
So I rented a bicycle from the chalet owner. There is a bridge built to link Don Det Island to Don Khon Island. 

The dirty road along the way.

A) FRENCH BRIDGE

After about 20-30 min ride (2km+), I reached the bridge. I was told to pay for the bridge ticket. 
Note : This ticket includes the entrance ticket for Li Phi waterfall.

TICKET         : 25,000 KIP 
TIME              : 08:00 AM - 19:00 PM

Most Frightening Experience @ 4000 Islands (Part 1) 4千島驚魂記

After my early breakfast in Pakse guesthouse, I took a minivan to a town further south, Ban Nakasang. The journey was about 2½ hours. All of us reached there around 10.30am and waited helplessly at the tourist bus terminal without knowing what to do next. Sooner we all were informed to walk to the river pier.

We reached at the "river pier" and we had no other choice but to cross the wooden plank. I noticed it was troublesome for people who carry a luggage along! Each of us were arranged to go on two different boats - Don Det and Don Khon, as they are moving to different island anyway.

On the boat heading to Don Det island.

The view from the boat is some lowland islands surrounded by forests. Apparently I can't notice any single concrete building. I supposed these islands are still remained largely undeveloped to maintain its natural resources and the whole ecosystem here. I have the feeling my life is going back to nature. Life seemed to be getting easier here and everything is back to the basics. 

Our backpacks were unloaded from the boat. I grabbed mine and walked away from the backpackers and a few locals were busy persuading backpackers to stay in their guesthouses.

Where is 4000 Islands? 4千島在哪裡？

As I mentioned earlier in Pakse(Laos) post, I didn't expect to travel to southern Lao. So I did not do much research about this place called 4000 Islands (Si Phan Don). Before going there, all these questions were running through my head :

- Why is it called 4000 Islands? 

- What to do in these remote islands? Is it safe? (My main concern)

- Which island to stay? Don Khong? Don Det? Don Khon? 

- How can I reach these islands?

- Any flood when heavy rain?

After reading LP (Lonely Planet), I started to have some clues. All I read on book : it's a backpacker's mecca, thousands of uninhabited "islands" on the river, waterfalls and dolphins. Please bear with me, if the explanation below maybe not be accurate or correct. It is my understanding on based on the info I found.

WHAT AND WHERE IS SI PHAN DON (4000 ISLANDS)?

Si Phan Don is an archipelago islands located in the Mekong River. Due to various geographical conditions, the endless flowing Mekong River from the Tibetan Plateau started running trans-boundary through China, Burma, Thai and reaching the most southern part of Laos, in which this area is located in a lower basin. Ultimately, this topography has resulted a wide stretch of the river that branches off into many smaller streams, forming thousands of islands/islets, rocky waterfalls and sandy deltas all the way south to Cambodia. Thus, the local simply called the whole region as "Si Phan Don" (literally "Si Phan" means 4000, "Don" means islands Laotian), a pretty cool name indeed. As why they called it 4000 islands instead of 1000 Islands or 5000 Islands, I heard that Si Phan Don sounds smoother in Laotian.

Vat Phou UNESCO Heritage site @ Pakse 百色

HOW DID I GET HERE?

Southern Lao was not on my initial plan. After much consideration, I decided to travel to the southern city - Pakse. At Vientiane guesthouse around 6pm, there's a tuk-tuk came to pick me up. Sooner I came to an unknown bus station. According to the guide, it should be the Dong Dok, southern bus station (9km away from town) and serves everywhere in southern region. We got down from the bus and went to the counter to collect our bus ticket.

They have VIP buses going to Thailand and China.

Below shown the interior of the sleeper bus in Lao. On this "double-sized" bed for two, they provided a pillow and a blanket for each and the bottom is a one-layer firm mattress. It wasn't a comfortable sleep I would say cause the size is suitable for two average size Laotians. I could hardly move my body as I was at the aisle side. I was arranged to sleep beside a German guy. To have a more comfy sleep, I just moved my stuff to back with a larger sized bed for four after the local Laotians had left the bus in the midnight. It was still a shaky ride all the way to south.

About 6am on the next day , the bus has arrived in Pakse town and it was still very early the sun just rose. I was the only foreigner that will stay in Pakse. The rest of them are going to 4000 Islands so they gonna do a bus transit there. As usual there were a few tuk-tuk drivers awaiting us once we got down from the bus. I have got a recommended guesthouse by a German couple so I was deciding to go there by foot. But the main problem is my phone does not have any network and the bus just stop us in an unknown bus station. At that time all my mind thought that the guesthouse might be quite a distance away.

I just ignored these annoying locals and grabbed my stuff and walked out of the bus station. Sooner a smart tuk-tuk drove passed me and kept telling me he knew the location of this guesthouse and charges me for only 10,000K. Without much hesitation, I just agreed and hopped on the back.

I just decided to stay in the dorm for only 30,000K per night. The room looked very clean with a shared bathroom. It is a large sharing room indeed. And I was the first person to occupy it.

It looked like a bungalow house to me. But it is quite comfortable.

VAT PHOU