We have food poisoning, and are not so happy. The Indian food for lunch yesterday was obviously not the thing for us, it came right back out, in more than one way! Think it will a while until we eat Indian food again! Hehehe..

After Vientiane, where I last updated, we went on then night bus to Pakse. But when we got there we just decided to go even further down south, to 4000 Islands - Si Phan Don. We jumped on another bus, which was extremely full, with all the luggage in the aisle (midtgangen), it was impossible to get out of the bus, and we were supposed to get out at the first stop, but seeing as we sat in the back, we just kept sitting there until everyone went off the bus, half an hour later. We ended up on an island called Don Khon. It is very close to Cambodia, and Lonely Planet described it as otherworldly. It was different, it was like going back at least 50 years in time, no cars, bungalows spread out by the riverside. People just seemed to live their quiet lives, and it seemed like a very safe and happy place. Sometimes I think we have a lot to learn from other cultures, in our stressful world, where owning things is the most important. I was a little bit disappointed though, because I thought there would be several activities to do there, but both the kayaking and tubing were not possible, they answered. Nothing really seemed to happen at all. We did book a dolphin trip though, there are very rare Irrawaddy dolphins in the lake there, and we did get to see them. Not much of them, but at least we saw a little bit.

We'd paid for a half day trip to go see these dolphins, and we were the only tourists on the trip. The woman we bought it off, told us her husband would come along, but we never saw him after he'd driven us on his boat to the mainland, and put us into a minibus. Later we learned that he wanted to watch the football on TV instead (!!!!!! Men!!!!). So the minivan let us off in a small village, and one of the men who lived there drove us out to the dolphins in his boat, after he drove us back to the village again, we were lost. He didn't speak English, no one spoke English, except for a guy who said "Wait a moment", and we waited for an hour and never saw him again! We were stuck in a small Laos village, and had no clue how to get back, no one could help us, and we were getting pretty lost and frustrated by this point. We decided to start walking, and bought a bottle of water to keep us from dehydrating on the way. Finally we found someone who spoke English, and we found a bus stop, and randomly the minibus driver who drove us there, was there to pick us up and drive us back. We wish someone would have told us that earlier!! Needless to say, we were pretty pissed off at the whole arrangement of the trip, but at least we saw the dolphins!

We did back to our island at last, safely. After lunch, we rented some bikes to explore around the island, and it was really beautiful there, we found a beach, and a waterfall and small lost villages with children running around. Life seemed pretty good there!

Yesterday, we got the bus back to Pakse, where we still are now. On the way there we were just fantasizing about Indian food, and were so hungry. They didn't have much of a variety of food on the island, so when we got to the Indian restaurant yesterday, we were excited. That only lasted for a couple of hours, until I had to run out of the internet café and up to my room, so I could throw it all back up again. I don't think I have ever been this badly food poisoned! It's finally getting better, but my body is all drained and I feel dizzy and weak. We are going to Thailand tonight, leaving on a bus across the border in 3 hours, and then onto a night train to Bangkok. Hopefully, the food poisoning won't come back while on public transport!