Backpacking | Bonds and Buds

It’s strange how the smallest encounter can affect you greatly. A small Laotian man tells a group of almost strangers to pair up. I’m transported back to my school years: it’s sports class and teams are being picked, but this time instead of calling out names one by one, teams (in this case pairs) are…

Embracing island life at Don Det Bungalows

To arrive on a small island in the middle of nowhere after an 18 hour journey with no accommodation booked is always daunting. Exhausted, we opted to delay the inevitable and plonked ourselves down at the nearest table in a restaurant shack bridging the “port” – a miniscule stretch where motorized timber canoes pull up…

How to get wet in Don Det

Waterfalls and River Dolphins Don Det had shaped into the epitome of a traveller’s imagination. From the moment I saw the 4000 Islands on a map, I knew I had to go. My expectations had steadily grew. Usually high expectations end in devastation, but Don Det instantly found a place in my heart. Few foreigners…

Do you want to sleep with me?

I know you must be wondering what happened in Vientiane? Well, if you didn’t guess it from my last post, I spent my entire time holed up in Funky Monkey Hostel. The hostel for the most part was great. However, it did seem that the “one-off” power outage from the first day seemed to repeat…

How I survived the bus ride from hell

The seat was broken. Correction, almost all the seats were broken. They rattled and thrusted—throwing their cargo around like a tossed salad. If salad had feelings it wouldn’t be far off the perpetual nausea stimulated by this bus journey. We had expected smooth asphalt roads leading into Laos’s capital city. However, this appeared to be…

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