Day 71! It seems like I’m back to normal after a terrible bout of food poisoning! I’m so glad it didn’t last longer than 48 hours. But it’s now time to properly explore this beautiful island that I’ve already spent days on! Even without exploring, I can tell why Don Det is a place travelers love to spend lots of time on!

After another full nights sleep, I was starting to feel almost back to my normal self! Ready for an adventure, I woke up early again and went across the road for breakfast!

I read more of my book while I waited for my food. I’m having troubles putting it down which is a nice problem to have!

After devouring some more of the book, my breakfast came. Today I started out my day with a banana pancake with honey! It was a great way to kick start my day.

Another great way to kickstart my day was chatting with my cousins Ben and Sam about our trip in Thailand together! We FaceTimed for an hour and a half, chatting about what we’ve been up to and diving deeper into planning when they come and visit.

We had a very productive call and figured a lot of our trip out. But you’ll have to wait till the end of April to hear about it!

It was finally time to head out on my adventure of the day! When I woke up it was nice and cloudy. But by now the sun had fully come out and the heat was beginning to pick up.

I set off down the road, and braved the heat, for my ride around the island.

After a nice 10 minute ride, I made it to my first stop. The last bit of the ride is on a dirt road that is very off road, so be wary of that if you ever intend on heading this way!

I parked my motorbike and headed to a very run down and rickety bridge that was my access way to a beautiful hidden oasis!

Over the sketchy bridge was a forested network of paths that weave their way through what was a field. I believe it was burned recently by the looks of the ground.

But through the network of paths you’ll find a number of beautiful river waterfalls! This rocky terrain is absolutely gorgeous and even in dry season it’s quite stunning.

I’m sure this is even more impressive during rainy season, but I had a blast being able to climb around the rocks, take dips into the water, and enjoy the sunshine after days of staying in my room!

I got to a point where I saw a group of locals fishing and they started yelling at me and waving me away… so I took that as a sign to turn back around.

After around an hour of baking in the heat I made my way back across the wobbly bridge and safely to my motorbike!

This is when I met another solo traveler, Oscar from Germany. Oscar was on the older side and had been in Don Det for a week after only intending on being here for a few days. He said he might not even travel north and just hang in Don Det the rest of his visa since he was enjoying the relaxing vibe of it so much!

Unfortunately though, while he was climbing around he cut open his toe pretty badly and asked me to see my thoughts on it since it was at a bad angle for him. Seeing how I’m not a doctor I really had no advice to give him outside of cleaning it out, but it wasn’t the nicest of cuts. It reminded me of when I kicked a (turned off) boat propeller before I left for Thailand last year… could use stitches, but healed without them.

Another 10 minute ride later down the paved road and I made it to my next relaxing stop, the Old French Port. This port overlooks the Mekong River that divides south Laos and the North of Cambodia! It was pretty neat looking across and seeing another country and also the river was so wide you could’ve convinced me it was a lake!

I ended up kick-standing my bike up and laying on top of it in the shade of a tree and enjoying the nice breeze coming across the river. I also did some planning for my future travels in Laos and caught up on some messages to friends!

There were also a few curious cows trotting around. One even found a nice snack from a locals motorbike basket!

After a nice 30 minutes of relaxing, I walked over to a nearby restaurant for lunch! As I admired the view some more, I munched on a plate of boiled chicken with basil and rice. I complimented it with a dairy free banana shake (more fiber)!

After finishing my meal, I hopped back on my motorbike and I set off down the road some more towards my final stop of the day, Khon Tai Beach!

This secluded beach was hidden down a 1 kilometer off road path full of rocks, sand, and dirt. But after braving it I was met with a nice area to swim and new friends!

When I arrived at the beach I met Dani from New Zealand and Boris from the Netherlands! I had actually run into Boris a few times already on my first day here before I got sick but now I finally had a face to a name!

After chatting for a bit, two new faces joined us! Emma and Juliet from Belgium. We all chatted for over an hour relaxing in the flowing river, which was actually quite warm. We talked about where we were from, our travels, and also dove a bit into some western pop culture where Dani and I found out the Wizard of Oz wasn’t as common outside of our countries as we had thought!

After a lovely time with all of them, I decided to finish the loop around the island and head back to my homestay for a much needed shower and nap!

I woke up feeling refreshed and I headed to the riverside to enjoy the shade and more relaxing and reading while watching my last beautiful Don Det sunset!

I thought after a long day of being on my own, that I’d finish it off that way. But of course the opposite happened! A conversation sparked between me and a French couple, Juliet and Camille.

We ended up chatting for a couple of hours as the sun finished setting. And then over a beer and a late dinner! It was very interesting hearing how they travel long term as a couple. They’ll spend a couple weeks together and then roam solo for a bit and then come back together. First time I’ve heard this way actually!

But what was also fun was they motorbiked Vietnam too! So we shared stories about our travels and then dove deep into other conversations about life and such.

My dinner for the night was an egg biryani. There’s a lot of Indian food on the island which is really making me wonder if there’s any Indian influence in Laotian culture. I’m going to keep exploring this idea before I google the answer and find out!

I called it a night on the earlier side because tomorrow I set out for Pakse! It’ll be the same drive I took to get down here but I think I’ll stay in the city this time around! Maybe I’ll make a quick stop in Tad Lo to say hello to Bo, we’ll see.

Looking forward to a smooth ride tomorrow… that’s hopefully not too hot!

– Elie