So to get down to the south we bit the bullet and booked onto a night bus to Pakse. The bus would take about 12 hours, we were a little worried about how much sleep we would get knowing how bad the roads are here and how fast they drive. Our tuk tuk dropped us off at the bus station and pointed us to our bus. We were a little worried about what bed numbers we would have as everyone else had numbers. The worst beds are the ones at the back as you have to lay with a stranger and the beds really aren't wide. You end up spooning each other and having to make sure you all turn at the same time. So as we past the nice new buses we eventually came to our clapped out old bus.....typical! And low and behold we had two beds at the back of the bus. However this actually worked in our favour as there was only 4 bed numbers where usually there's 5 and the side we were on was a foot or too longer so we were both able to lay completely flat, this is a massive first! However the only other disadvantage was that being at the back you tend to get flung about when the bus goes over bumps so it made the journey a little more interesting. Plus Kate's window was completely smashed but had what looked like glue in the middle of the crack the size of a football.

Our prayers were answered and we made it to Pakse in one piece. We then needed to get onto another bus to take us to the 4,000 islands, even further south. This bus only took 2 hours and we were there in no time. However we got off and were abandoned in what seemed to be a car park, there were two other people with us, we asked where the boat dock was and started walking, it wasn't far, only 15 minutes or so. We tried to get on a boat with our ticket but the guy said we had to go to some bus office (we had bought a combo ticket sleeper + bus + boat). We made our way back and found the office, some guy stranded there and shouted at us saying I have been looking everywhere for you, you should have waited when you got of the bus.....how were we to know, we were just left there! Anyway he did a scribble on our tickets and we headed back down to the boats and hoped aboard. We stopped at the first island Don Det, very glad we didn't intend to stay here. The boat pulled up on a small sandy area which people where using as a beach! Couldn't believe it, the sand was covered in rubbish, not a nice place from first impressions the book describes it as the next Vang Vieng (full of people just wanting to get drunk, AKA traveller type B). We were after a bit of chill out time so headed to Don Khon. We were the only two on the boat now, we arrived at the island and got off the boat. It was probably the first time we have arrived somewhere and have not been met by tuk tuk drivers or people offering "cheap" rooms. We wandered around a bit, it was unbelievably hot and very quiet, we found a cheap bungalow facing the river...perfect! We dumped our bags and headed for some food. The village was so quiet we couldn't believe it. The rest of the afternoon we chilled out on our hammock and caught up on lost sleep. The next day we hired some bikes and headed to Tat Somphamit waterfall, it was amazing. So many rocks and fast flowing cascades. We followed signs for the beach to see what it was like. It was a lot better than the one on Don Det but the river current was so fast we were scared that we would be washed away. We got on our bikes again and cycled down the very stoney road, Kate made a comment on needing a face lift after this bike ride. No joke the roads where really bad, after a while we gave up, it was so hot and the bikes just weren't suitable for the road.

We got back and had ice cold showers just to cool down, within minutes we were sweating again! We figured that this is the island where you do nothing because it is too hot to do anything! Well we both realised pretty quickly that we aren't very good at doing nothing and got bored quickly. The next day again being too hot to do anything the day revolved around eating. Unfortunately after the 9th eatery we had been too we realised they all had the same menu!

The last night on the island we again didn't do a lot (there really is nothing to do, everyone is in bed by 9). A kitten attached itself to Kate again, we ate and went to bed, feeling happy that we were leaving in the morning.