Nick and I hadn’t figured out where to spend Christmas before we began the Pakse Loop. I had vague ideas of perhaps just staying in Pakse, or maybe choosing a town a few hours closer to Siem Reap, our next big destination. But more than one backpacker that we met along the way had really good things to say about Si Phan Don: Four Thousand Islands.
Khone Phapheng Falls on Don Khon
We were told the group of islands on the Mekong, near the Cambodian border, were a peaceful place where you can just relax in a hammock at a riverside bungalow and chill out for the week. After two back-to-back motorbike trips, this sounded like a great way to spend Christmas. So even though it was a detour from the direct route to Siem Reap, we decided to go for it. I searched online for accomodations on any of the islands (we were told that Don Det was the nicest,though), but found that almost everything was booked solid over Christmas. I felt like we got super lucky when I eventually found a few riverside bungalows at
Mr. Tho’s still available! The reviews on Tripadvisor looked good, so I booked it and we sorted out our transportation.
We arrived on Don Det and found that it was actually quite a long (1.5km) very hot walk from where the boat drops you off to Mr. Tho’s. And when we got to our rooms...we immediately understood why Mr. Tho’s had still been available: the cleanliness standards were so low, they weren’t even on the scale!
Looks nice enough from this angle, but the riverbank was full of garbage. Wish I'd taken photos of this too.
We aren’t germophobe travelers by any means. We have stayed in all manner of accommodations over the years. We are campers and backpackers who regularly poop in the woods. We have been going to places like South Africa and India since we were both young and know how to handle squat toilets, mosquitos and are not phased by bugs or geckos inside the house etc. But this place was, quite simply, the most disgusting I have ever seen and I honestly couldn’t stomach spending four nights here. I wish I had taken pictures!
The river banks at Mama Leuah's are picture perfect!
Nick and I walked around for a bit hoping we could find better accommodation nearby. Everything that looked acceptable was either completely booked or super expensive ($100+/night). Eventually we stumbled upon a riverside bungalow that was still under construction and didn't even have a name yet. But fortunately, they had a few rooms that were already finished. There was no wifi or food, but we didn’t care because at least it was clean enough that we wouldn't lose our lunches every time we had to go to the bathroom. So we went back to Mr. Tho’s and lost out on 2 days of accommodation cost to cancel the rest of our booking and did a quick switch.
With our accommodations at least tolerable, we set out to explore the islands. We found ourselves hanging out at
Mama Leuah’s restaurant a lot for both the free wifi and the good food. So that was a big hit. We also had a really lovely Christmas dinner at
Crazy Gecko’s. We wished we had managed to get accommodations here, as it looked really nice!
Khone Phapheng Falls
We rented bikes from Mama Leuah’s and explored. There were some nice cascades to check out, as well as some remnants of Laos' first railway, which was informative and interesting. But this was an island where there isn’t a whole lot to do other than relax in a hammock and read a book. So the fact that our corner of the island was kind of dirty (there was a lot of garbage on the river banks, for example) and our accomodation was not totally comfortable (seeing has half of it was still under construction), it just didn’t work for us. It wasn’t the relaxing Christmas that we had envisioned, and after 2 nights, we decided to just move on. We booked a 10 hr transfer to Siem Reap for Boxing Day and planned to find somewhere to stay when we arrived in Siem Reap.
Beautiful area near the falls
Don Det is not without its merits. It is beautiful and relaxing…but only if you end up at the right part of the island.
The area near Mr. Tho’s wasn’t great (in 2015/2016 — not sure if it’s still the case), and the area around where the boat drops you off is also not to our taste as it was quite noisy and busy. But near Crazy Gecko’s and Mama Leuah’s…that was just the vibe we were looking for! So it was a bummer that we couldn’t find accommodations there. But them’s the breaks! If we ever return, we know to check reviews on multiple platforms before booking, as the reviews on booking.com did reflect the reality of Mr. Tho’s. And on an island like this, the quality of your accommodation directly correlates to how much you will enjoy your stay.
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