Located in the Southern part of Laos, Pakse was our penultimate stop in this incredible country. We arrived on an overnight bus from Vientiane which we booked through 12go Asia (very useful site by the way). The bus was actually really comfortable but you need to remember to book 2 tickets if you are a normal sized foreigner. The bus has proper beds but they are rather small and meant to fit 2 people hence why the 2 tickets advice. If you book just one, you can end up sharing a bed with a stranger, or a monk, for 10 hours or so…
Pakse has an airport too so if you don’t have time you can opt in to fly instead. Our hotel was just a short stroll from the bus stop and we got a room immediately despite it being 6 am! The hotel is called Pakse Hotel and is actually one of the nicer ones around but costs very little (about £25 per night). It also has a great rooftop bar and a restaurant from where you can watch the sunset and take advantage of the happy hour (3 large beers for £3.50).
The town itself is pretty small and doesn’t have any attractions as such. The main reason why people come to Pakse is to visit the Bolaven Plateau. The Plateau is fairly large and there are a number of attractions there like waterfalls, coffee plantations and ethnic villages. You can join a shared tour and tick off all the attractions this way (the cost is approx £15) or if you’re unlucky and there are not enough people you can hire a driver to take you to all the spots. You’re guessing correctly that we fell into the second option. It was of course more expensive (double the price of the tour) but the driver turned out to be a lovely guy with quite a good grasp of English which made the day very enjoyable. It was also nice to have an air conditioned car to yourself. We booked it through one of travel agencies in town. It is worth shopping around though as they don’t all have the same prices. The trip was really nice and we got to see some beautiful scenery and 3 waterfalls, we saw local villages and had a great coffee at the plantation.
With the main attractions crossed off our list in Pakse, we took a shared minivan to an area called 4000 islands or Si Phan Don, just by the Cambodian border and about 3 hours away from Pakse. A lot of people combine the two areas or base themselves in one of the two so we were quite lucky to be able to spend time in both. 4000 islands is a stunning part of Laos where the Mekong is very wide and lots of islands have formed there. It is an area known for being a backpacker paradise with a very laid back vibe and lots of bars and cheap hostels. The promise of it being cheap was quite attractive to us as the rest of Laos actually turned out to be more expensive than Thailand and we needed to reign the spending in a little.
The ticket from Pakse to Don Det (the island we chose to stay on) also included the ferry. We got dropped off near the ferry, and had to walk a little to get on the boat. Once on the boat, the beautiful scenery opened up everywhere and I immediately felt so happy we allocated 5 nights to this place.
We chose to stay in Little Eden Hotel. One of a few hotels with a pool. Most guesthouses on the island just assume people will jump into the river to cool off but since I’m not a great swimmer I thought it may be good to have a pool in case the river is too much for me. The hotel is definitely one of the more upmarket places on the islands but cost us just £23 per night. The room was basic but functional and we hardly spent any time in it anyway. The pool was amazing and when the temperatures went up to 38C we were so happy that we chose this place.
The island of Don Det is really small and very rural with a laid back atmosphere. Think reggae music, sitting on the floor, cheap booze and other delights if you are in the market for them. Also, judging by the state of some foreigners here, they came in the 90s and never left 😂 It’s all part of the experience and what makes the place very unique and feels a million miles away from the manicured streets of Luang Prabang.
There is a lot to do here for the adventurous like kayaking, ziplining, dolphin spotting or cycling. The kayaks were out of the question for me since they take you through some big rapids. We did ziplining in Costa Rica a few years back so we weren’t that bothered about it either. Dolphin spotting was on our agenda however we found out they only have 4 specimens on this side of the border so we decided to do it while in Cambodia where it is pretty much guaranteed we will see them. So we were left with cycling. I have to say that cycling around this lovely island (and its bridge-linked brother Don Khone) is truly idyllic. The bikes are in good condition and cost less than a £1 per day to hire. We took them out twice, went to see a waterfall the first day and then went to a wild river beach the second. The best part is cycling through the village and observing the local life. Such a nice experience and one I will always remember. The shores of the Mekong here look so exotic, makes you think you’re in a film!
Being on a backpacker islands, we couldn’t help but participate in the lifestyle a little so we went on a booze cruise organized by one of the hostels nearby. It was a lot of fun, we got taken to a lovely beach not far away and plied with booze of course. The music was playing and there was a lovely sunset in front of us. Really nice experience and we got to meet some like minded people to exchange some travel stories with.
It was also going well on the food front too, we went through the majority of the stay with no issues until Steve was struck with a bug on the morning we were due to leave for Cambodia and we had to change the plan and stay one more day here for him to recover (travelling 6 hours in a cramped minivan is not something you want to do when I’ll, especially not in Laos with the bumpy roads and non existent roadside toilets). The restaurants all seemed fine though and there is a good variety of places here including some decent Western food. Who knows which place gave us the bug, could have easily been the Lao whiskey too 😂 Nevertheless, my favourite meal on the island was the pineapple fried rice and watermelon/coconut shake at Emily’s Noodle Restaurant on the other island. So exotic!
