Si Phan Don - four-thousand Islands

Hello everybody!

Hope you are fine out there! Since a few days I am on the four-thousand Islands (Si Phan Don) in southern Laos, very close to the Cambodian border.
After the Plains of Jars I headed with Pete to Paxxan. They are still constructing that road. So it was incredible dusty and hot at the same time. We went through until today isolated villages. With the new road their live will change fast. That’s almost depressing for me to see. For sure – if you would ask them, they would say they are happy about the progress, but they don`t know how many side effects the progress has at the same time. But it was an enjoyable ride, especially when you are able to forget about the circumstances and get in contact with the Locals.
In Paxxan we stayed only one night and headed the next morning to Takhek. We thought about doing the Motorbike Circle. That would have been three tough days. But as the motorbike you could get have been in a bad constitution we decided to skip it. After a lazy day I used to recover a little we headed with a nice group of eleven people to a cave, around 200 km away. That was stunning. The Cave is almost 5 km long and you can only pass it by boat. Incredible! I have never seen such a place. And also our company was nice. Especially Dave from the US, who is traveling since four years (yeah, finally I found somebody who is travelling already longer than me…), Merlin another German guy, Kelsey from the US as well but with Armenian roots and some more interesting and inspiring people.
Finally we needed 12 hours for that trip. The landscape on the way was stunning as well. Beautiful Karst Mountains…
The next morning we headed to Paxxe - another long bus drive. But the last one at least for a while. The original plan was to head to Wat Phou another Khmer Temple, even older than Angkor but I Just wanted to arrive on four thousand Islands and have my peace.
So I headed already the next morning by Minibus and Boat to Don Det. And I found my perfect place immediately. A nice little Bungalow situated at the Mekong, Place for my hummock a nice family. This is what (I was searching for. As I was a little tired of being accompanied all the time, I decided to go on my own for a while. There have been also different reasons but this is not the place for these things.
I met a lot of good people the first days, discovered the Island and the next one on a bicycle or just barefoot. The Smoke here is cheap and natural like I prefer it. It is very laid-back down here and much less developed than other Backpacker Paradises I have seen so far, but for sure you can see the change.
But I am absolutely fine that I am here right now. For sure you have also a lot of very stupid people around, but they are not staying that long here. I gonna stay here until my Vis extend. Most probably I will extend it for a few days. Than I would have to go back to Paxxe to the Police Station and I would have ti8me to see the Temple at that time and maybe even the Coffee Plantations and the Waterfalls at the Bolivian Plateau. But let`s see. I am free…
Afterwards I will head to Cambodia to visit especially Angkor Wat. Next Destination will be the Philippines. Probably I will fly into Manila from Saigon / Vietnam or I make my way over Borne, what would be even more tempting. Pete plans have changed to heading into Hong Kong. So we will separate soon. Most probably that will happen already in a few days. But actually it happened already, as we don`t see us often any more.
Myanmar is still tempting but absolutely not sure. I will see.
The last few days I met ton wonderful women again. The one left the Islands and the other one just arrived. I like both of them a lot. Sometimes it makes me very sad. You meet so many wonderful people and sometimes you fall in love with a woman. And you sense there are feelings on both side but also a border between that seems not crossable. And that’s the moment when I get lonely. I think to myself why is it that difficult, what seems to be so easy.
But that`s life. We make it much more complicated than it should be. And I am not free of fear but I would be able to go for it and go over the fear to make my desires come true. And one day it will happen. I am just waiting that long already. And then there is still somebody waiting for me in India… I just lost every feeling towards her after this harmful good-bye. I think I just had to kill my feelings at that moment. I have no fuckin` plan how to explain that to her…
But enough. I just heard my grandmother got another stroke, is half side paralysed and will die very soon. That`s something really harmful. She is the last of my Grandparents. And I will not be there when she dies… I hope she will find peace and I am pretty sure she will. I just wrote her a letter, what wasn`t really easy.
I will rest in this place until I feel energetic enough for new adventures.
Wish you all the best and stay true!

Yours,

Mr. Coconutyoga