Bird’s Nest Bevarage – 25% bird’s nest

Si Phan Don. The name literally translates as ‘four thousand islands’.

Here the Mekong, until now a wide expanse of water, branches out into an intricate web of channels producing a 14km wide mosaic of sandbars (see definition below), islets and islands numbering in the thousands.

Don Khong is the largest and most populous of the islands. In the last few years it has even attained the luxury of 24-hour electricity, but it still boasts a largely authentic traditional Laos lifestyle.

We were dropped by the boat at a small collection of guesthouses overlooking the riverbank. We checked into our chosen guesthouse and crashed out, exhausted from the journey. Around four o clock in the afternoon (whoops) we woke and decided to cycle around the island after speaking to three Irish girls who had just undertaken a similar journey. In our groggy state we failed to listen when they informed us how long it had taken.

We set off during daylight and admired the laid-back, sedate and traditional island life.

The road wound through rice paddies and lush green fields with grazing waterbuffalows. Every few kilometres we would cycle through a rustic village, just a few wooden shacks populated by people busying themselves with daily chores; women pumping water, and washing clothes in the river, children bathing by the roadside with a bucket, men threshing grain and other examples of subsistence farming.

Children would come running out of their houses and shout “good morning”. They were too cute to correct. Mothers would point us out to their kids r bring them over to us when we stopped. They were all so friendly.

It was clear that foreigners are still a novelty for these people.

After an hour we stopped for a break. A short distance across a field stood a small monastery. We watched as the sun set behind the roof silhouetting the building and the palm trees against a sky of bright reds, oranges and purples while the bells of the temple tolled.

The journey (very) turned ugly from then on.

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