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After a gruelling 16 hour bus journey from hell, we finally found heaven on the Si Phan Don! And the name doesnt lie, there are actually 4000 islands, although granted, some are only big enough for 1 tree! It is just so chilled here, a perfect little island hideaway, which is just what we needed after the carnage of the North!
We're currently staying on Don Det which is the main backpacker island, its so beautiful here, you stay in bamboo huts on stilts either overlooking the river or the paddy fields. They only have electricity for 4 hours a day, so it really has been back to basics! After our first night We did manage to upgrade from a $2 hut with a communal toilet to a $4 hut with an en suite. Our new hut overlooks a lake & at night the chorus of frogs & crickets is almost deafening! Its bliss here, there is very little to do except drink happy shakes & hang around all day in hammocks! its been so nice to just kick back & relax again - this is what Laos is all about!
The Laos people are so nice too, (I havent really metioned much about the local culture here as I got a bit too caught up in the BeerLao cuture) & are so chilled out. In fact the people are so relaxed that its not unusual to go into a restaurant & have to wake up the staff - everyone seems to sleep all the time! I think this is because most Lao's get up at 5am every morning to give alms to the monks, I actually had amoment of madness & got up early one morning to do this; It was a surreal experience, the people line the streets, on their knees, each with a basket of food & then the monks come along with a big bucket type thing for the food to be placed in. The monks only get to eat twice a day so what they get given is the only food they eat - crazy.
The Laos people also LOVE their BeerLao & surprisingly there is quite a big drinking culture here. In Luang Prabang we stayed in a brand new guesthouse & whilst we were there, they did a Baci ceremony to ward off evil spirits & bring good luck to the new business. The ceremony was followed by a huge streeet party with endless supplies of BeerLao, which the locals insisted on making us down shots of! The block party was so much fun, they had a huge soundsystem & a live cabaret singer - me & Cassie (NBF) were accosted onto the dancefloor & taught how to dance like a local, so now I can groove Laos style!
Tomorrow we're moving onto another island, where we should hopefully get to see freshwater dolphins & waterfalls, but I think it will be a while before we get to explore all 4000 of the islands, its a shame we dont have more time as I think I could stay here forever!
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