Mar 17 - Tat Lo - An early start from the Champasak hotel, and Cheryl was amazingly fully recovered from her food poisoning. I'd been really keen to use the first aid kit that I'd filled up in South Africa, and carried round Asia with us - repeatedly offering to dose her up with Ciprafloxin 250. Needless to say, she wasn't having any of it, and was looking 100 percent for the first time in a couple of days, which was a big relief. We packed a small daypack with ...

Mar 15-16 Don Det to Pakse - We woke up early-ish, and got packed to leave Don Det. We'd actually had a really cool time here, although we'd managed to spend four days doing not much! The boatman wandered up to our guesthouse to get us, and then we set of for the mainland, where we were catching a bus to Pakse. The trip itself wasn't too long - maybe a couple of hours in a minivan. March to May are incredibly hot in this part of the world - it was pushing forty d...

Mar 13-14 Don Det - We spent the next couple of days just chilling out in Don Det. There were hammocks strung in front of our bungalows, which had brilliant views out over the Mekong, but were still slightly shaded. There's a roaring trade in second hand books on the island - they're about four dollars each, or maybe a dollar if you've got one you've already read to swap. I grabbed a couple of novels - Ellmore Leonard or someone - nothing too edifying! After Camb...

Mar 12 - Don Det - Given we'd had an early night, we still slept in a bit, and it was eight 'o'clock by the time we'd roused and showered ourselves. We ordered breakfast (the most delicious banana and chocolate pancakes) and then set off to explore the island; which we decided to do by bike. Mama Souksan wasn't working the reception today, and when we went to ask about bike hire, I got another little reminder of how laid back Lao life is. At first I thought the r...

Mar 11 - Ban Lung to Don Det - Like a couple of geriatrics, we crawled out of bed. In addition to general post-hiking stiffness, we'd got quite badly sunburnt on the river the day before, while waiting for the guide to pick us up, so we limped around cursing him for a while. Kim, who manages the Tribal Lodge, had sorted out our tickets to Don Det, so we packed up our backpacks again and went up for some breakfast. The minibus arrived bang on time at around eight-...