13th January - Thursday
The four of us headed off on the bus first thing to Laos, we had a very speedy driver for the first leg arriving in Stung Treng in record time! We had a few hours to look around, not alot to see but a fab bakery and nice cafe to have some food in, we had some tasty food but Paula ordered custard & fruit the custard was the powder paste poured over the fruit! No sugar or milk interesting! The next bus took us to the border, which they are building a grand entrance but not long started! In the mean time the original shacks are being used, with no attempt to ensure people get visa's though, but those that do they like to sting UK passport holders more than most! $2 to leave Cambodia $35 for UK to get a visa and a further $2 to get your passport back, cheek, cheek as other countries pay less! Our bus had switched while we were getting through the border, so we all checked our luggage was on board then squeezed on as they had added more people to the mini bus. We were dropped at the waters edge where we were shown to a small boat, which squeezed 8 of us plus luggage on and a little unstably took us across to Don Det landing on the beach claiming our bags we headed on to find a bed. Basic rooms were located with Mekong views showers and toilets were outside, for £2-3 you can't expect much and it helped with the budgets. We settled in on our balcony reading in the hammocks, before heading off to dinner, we ate at our place trying out the famous pumpkin burgers! They are amazing!! Paula headed for an early night the rest of us headed for a few drinks, bars close by 11 so wasn't a late one!

14th January - Friday
I got up pretty early and headed to the showers, Matt was up when I returned so we left others in bed and went for breakfast. After a few hours the others joined us and we decided to hire bikes to explore the island and head over to Don Kohn. We found a nice location for lunch on the Mekong, then set off to the waterfall, the tracks were pretty bumpy in places but we have become used to this now! We heard the fall long before we saw it, when we did see it was breathtaking, not just one but multiple falls and rapids! We sat and watched it for some time and cycled on a little at a time to get different views. Jon headed back from there but we really wanted to find a location to swim and see more, did not seem possible to swim we got to the beach area with a small inlet but only option here was to build a damn! Well Matt did us girls provided some rocks for reinforcement, after seeing it was working we heading on again to see the rest of the sights due to chain probs we got a little delayed. Us girls went ahead as time was getting on and riding in the dark would be a problem! They don't have lights in towns/ villages on main land, so islands definitely not. As we came off a track and onto the only made up road on the island, which seemed to go for miles and nothing about, some young children waved us down and jumped on the back of our bikes, on there way from school who knows how far they had already walked! It was funny the little girl was holding onto my clothes, I had to try and explain to be careful I was in an all in one and could see it being pulled down! Some way down as we got to another path they tapped on our shoulders to stop us very happy and headed off. We carried on to where the road ends and a shear drop looks out over the islands where dolphins can also be seen, beautiful view! We waiting ling enough to be caught up then all set off on the long trek to the other island before dark, Matt continued to have chain issues with every bump, problem being road ended and we were on a dirt track again with some distance to go! We carried on while he persevered, we made it to the island bridges to see another great sunset over the Mekong! Heading on before sun left us totally. We headed to have dinner and stayed in the bar till closing, 11pm so on route back we bought some potent rice wine ready for forfeits during cards! We played till 2 am all loosing a few times, evil stuff!!

15th January - Saturday

I was up and feeling fine 9am, others were delicate and stayed In bed! So I headed to only wi fi place on island and got on with bits while enjoying some porridge! It was a chilly morning! By the time the others surfaced it was lunch time then Paula and I headed to the mini beach and laid in the sun. Dinner at sunset guest house was lovely, the food service was on slower than normal Laos time! I only managed to get one cocktail they forgot the 3 times I asked, after food we headed onto Monkey Bar where everything can be made happy!