Arrived in Don Det after a day in Pakse, which although a nice enough town is basically just a travel hub. It took a loooong journey to get there too, including a night bus that came complete with bunks to sleep in. It was two to a bunk though, so it was pretty cosy, which ok for me and Shah, but I had to feel sorry for the two strangers who had to snuggle up in the bunk opposite ours! I kept having dreams about falling off cliffs as wall, because I was on the outside of the bunk and there wasn´t much to stop me tumbling out!

There wasn't a whole lot to do it Pakse itself, so I decided to get a Lao massage to ease away my aches and pains after kayaking and the bus journey it had taken to get there. It was a slightly odd experience - sometimes it was soothing and releaxing, at other times it felt like I was beig beaten up and given Chinese burns! I wasn't sure whether I should have been trying to relax more or shouting for help! Pakse did win us over with some amazing Indian food though - it was so good I dreamt about it on the bus to Don Det next day!

Don Det is one of the Si Phan Don (4000 Islands) in the middle of the Mekong in the just about the border to Cambodia, and is very chilled out and peaceful. You could easily spend weeks here exploring all the different islands - we had an afternoon, so so we embarked on a long walk (10K round-trip) to Don Khon, one of the other islands (crossed over on an old railway bridge, part of what was the only train line ever to have be laid in Laos) and see a big waterfall. It was really beautiful and had lots of little mini waterfalls running into the main one - Selina declared it the best best waterfall she'd seen since Iguza! Stayed there watching the falls for quite a while, and I also had my unusual fruit fix for the location - a short, stubby, funny-tasting banana, not that nice to be honest, although the eccentric, slightly mental owner of the riverside bamboo hut we were staying in did make me a pancake with some of them in for breakfast the next day and it was lovely). The hut we stayed in was pretty basic, and only had electricity fo a couple hours a night - that was fine though, because after dinner, a couple games of pool and playing with some puppies, we needed yet another early night in preparation for yet another early start to begin our journey in to Cambodia...