Post # 25 Don Kong

Day 30 1050 days to go. Distance: today 115km total 1515m. It’s 7.00pm Friday the 30/12/2011 Muang Kong, Don Kong Island, Si Phan Don (South Loas). I’m sitting at V Mala Lao House the guest home I found this arv. It’s beautiful and I have the whole place to myself spoilt city. I’m seated on the huge deck at a table and can smell something amazing coming from the kitchen best of all it’s my dinner cooking. I’ve ordered extra large vegy and egg fried rice very excited very hungry very very. The manager Than said that not many people stay here opting for the two larger hotels near the dock. What a missed opportunity for him and them. I told Than he should stick a sign up where the ferry comes in and that I would plug his guesthouse on the blog – he’s happy. The place is so beautiful this stilted old house all renovated with polished wooden interior walls floors and ceiling and really wide timbers. I thought I’d be way out of my budget but it’s only 50000 the cost of most places I’ve stayed but nothing in comparison. There are super hot showers where I indulged before dinner scrubbing up dam fine I might add and smelling a treat. My room is on the deck with a huge netted bed ready to fall into in an hour or so. The gardens are leafy green and cared for and the whole place oozes charm and comfort. I’ll take some pickies tomorrow in the light to show off where I’ll be hanging out for the next day’s leaving Cambodia on the 2/1/2012. For now I’m seeing in the New Year soaking up a slice of Si Phan Don about 30km from the boarder. As Lonely planet so articulately describes ‘..it is an archipelago of sandbars and rocky inlets set amid the turquoise expanse of the Mekong River. I’ve popped myself on the quieter of the three main islands the others being Don Det and Kon, a bit more touristy and expensive to ferry to and I though maybe a bit eeek for me being new years and lots of party people partying. So it’s just me and the crickets waiting on the deck for dinner to come out. It’s nice to hav a cooked meal as a treat and a nice way to start 3 days off to soak up the island, rest up and start thinking about Cambodia. There’s an internet café here I can’t pick it you would never guess it’s a small one street place with nothing much to distract you from doing nothing much.  Obviously there’s some exploring that can be done and I may venture out over the days to see what’s about. It’ll also be great to have internet access to be in touch with family now over New Years. Dinners just come out and it could feed two but I’ll do my utmost between typing, what a trooper – by the way it tastes delish garnished with chopped coriander , cucumber and chilly I’m in drool heaven. That’s an offensively huge serve  mmmmm maybe time for some more senakot J Headed off this morning after spending some time with the family from the guest house they were very warm and fun. Then it was down to the dock to catch the ferry across the river and pick up route 13 again. It’s a real pretty area full of river life and a fishing village feel. Quickly apparent on the short trip across. The ferry was this double long boat with a fella sitting out back steering his 2 stroke put put motor. The standing deck was about 3m square and a tight squeeze for a handful of us along with Rube. The banks are sandy and sloped and a bit of an effort to get her and the trailer on and off the ferries and back onto the harder level roads. I’ll give her some attention tomorrow to keep those nasty rusty bits at bay – she’s travelling so well and we’re a jet team propping each other up when the other goes a bit off rail J Did I mention dinner was fabulous and I am making an impressive dint for a wee thing. I did a good cycle stint first up to Lunchtime and stopped at a roadside amenities centre. These places pop up from time to time where there are multiple amenities to shower and wash up at a small fee a food store come restaurant attached.  There were also these village women who had set up a make-ship grilling plate and was selling skewered pressed banana, meats and sweat potato. I had bought 3 grilled eggs earlier and ate them with the last of the baguette then bought skewered banana for desert yum. The family running the centre and the village women were so friendly I ended up hanging out there for nearly 2 hours playing with the kids and enjoying the people’s company. A bus of Japanese and Thai tourists pulled up at one stage and the people literally gave the women and their food the big swerve and bought packaged western style food instead go figure. So their loss but unfortunately also a loss of kip for the ladies. Their food is so cheap comes straight of the grill and tastes so yum. Anyway it was off and onwards to here and a long slog to end the day with pretty much nothing about except hot open plains and a bit tough to cover the ks. I wrongly took an early exit and had to follow a single sandy track along the river bank through these tiny offbeat villages very cool to check out with the villages very surprised to see me. It was a bit tricky cycling Rube and the trailer through the sandy uneven track and I was a bit over it by the time I popped out at the ferry port some 10km later. It was a short trip across to arrive at sunset beautiful. I met this cool family on the ferry. They’re from France but now live in London and travelling with their 5 year old boy – Impressive I thought given Laos isn’t easy travelling the easiest place to travel. They were also very interested in what I was doing so I gave them my blog card. I may hear from Oliver and his family bit in the meantime I hope they enjoy the rest of their trip. We have pretty much followed the same itinery so were able to exchange a few ‘what was your favorite?’ stories. Anyway time to sign off, finish devouring dinner and maybe visit the internet café to upload some photos while dinner digests otherwise it’ll be crazy dreams with a belly full of digesting starch. Talk soon x