I’ve had a great time enjoying beautiful landscapes, meeting cool people and friendly locals, experiencing interesting ways of transportation and travel and over all just the beautiful country of Lao where I could’ve definitely spent more time than just these 14 days. But I guess once more it’s time to move on and although my passport being with some Laotian guy at the bus station where I boarded the minivan to the border gives me a slightly uncomfortable feeling in my stomach, I am excited for my upcoming journey to Cambodia.

4000 islands here in the south of Lao and especially Don Det – the island which I stayed on – turned out to be slightly different than expected. After Cameron Highlands in Malaysia and Pai in Thailand I experienced the exact opposite, sleeping wise, here: a bungalow with no air con and a fan that would only blow in my direction every 20 seconds, extreme heat and even worse humidity, made for some really sweaty nights and actual trouble falling asleep. If you wake up early in the morning the wind and the air actually feels good but your only desire is still that long and cold shower. To be honest there’s not really a point in showering though, since you start sweating immediately after stepping out of that shack called bathroom which feels like heaven for at least a couple of minutes. That’s also the reason why I got halfway through my book in only 1 1/2 days – there’s simply nothing you can do, except for maybe going for a swim, that would be bearable in this weather. So you might as well just stay underneath that fan with a cooling smoothie in one and your book in the other hand, trying to avoid any body movement whatsoever.

I did expect the islands to be a little prettier, too and not as dirty, I guess. Also, I didn’t connect with the people as well as I did in places before, so I’m actually not too sad about leaving right now. In contrast to that, I really had a fun time in Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng. After the 2€ paracetamol and some aspirin from my German roommates got me through the worst of my cold and fever (no malaria – don’t worry), I enjoyed three days of walking around the cute town, getting a traditional Lao massage (which involved a lot of stretching, pulling and putting pressure onto the different body parts – super relaxing), spending a day relaxing at the pool, visiting the beautiful and stunning Kuang Si waterfall, hanging out and playing cards with cool people at the hostel and strolling along one of the nicest night markets in Southeast Asia. After that, the 5 hour minivan ride to Vang Vieng wasn’t that bad either. We actually made it on time and I’m not sure if it was due to the motion sickness pills I took or if we just got lucky with our driver, but I was even able to sleep and didn’t feel sick at all. On the bus, I met Ken (we went as Barbie and Ken for the next days) and after our arrival we straight went on an authentic “crappy dirt road cows everywhere” bike ride to the blue lagoon where we cooled off in the water among many many Asians in their bright orange life vests, just floating around in the lagoon. At night, we enjoyed our freshly prepared chicken omelette sandwiches (which must have been the best I’ve ever eaten!! Make sure you try those when in Vang Vieng) and the happy hour at “Sakura” bar with the following jungle party. Due to that, we had kind of a late start the next morning but supposedly 1pm is the best time to go tubing anyway.

Floating down the Mekong, stopping at different bars we had a super fun time – I just wish we could’ve tubed all day. I met up again with the group of the day at the Irish pub at night: Darragh and Claire from Ireland (who I already knew from the slow boat to Luang Prabang), Anton and Maud from Sweden, Sarah and Andrew (I think they were somewhere from Scandinavia), Thomas from France (poor guy had to deal with his jealous girlfriend back home the whole time we were together) and Caroline from England. We watched the rugby game Ireland vs Wales and since we had some Irish people with us and Caroline is Irish at heart, the night got pretty intense. For me it just looked like a bunch of guys laying on top of each other all the time, fighting over that ball and some guy limping off the field because he got injured every 5 minutes – but oh well, I guess some people get excited over stuff like that. That night basically ended my stay in Vang Vieng because my bus would leave at 1:30pm the next day and until then, I just made myself comfortable in one of the restaurants that showed “Friends” and enjoyed the repeating episodes with – what else – a mango banana smoothie. They show Friends everywhere in Vang Vieng. You can pick whatever are and be 95% sure that you’ll be able to watch an episode of that classic series.

My next stop would be 4000 islands, close to the border of Cambodia, and in order to get there, I only had to take a four hour bus to Vientiane – the capital of Lao -, a ten hour sleeper bus from there to Pakse, another 4-5 hour bus to the town on mainland and finally a ten minute boat to the island of Don Det. So, after 50% of my transportation was late, the Valium didn’t quite do its work, therefore, I couldn’t really sleep on the “bed” I was sharing with a Laotian woman (who, by the way, definitely took more than half of her share of the mattress), I couldn’t find any food when we arrived early in the morning in Pakse besides typical Asian noodle soups or cookies. I ended up with baguette and banana and felt just a little sick when I finally arrived on the island after my 24h journey to the very southern tip of Lao. Despite all those negative aspects, I did enjoy two relaxing days here and although I’m excited to move on, a couple more days of settling down would feel just about good right now. The past weeks have been a little rushed I got to say. Where has all the time gone?

The journey to Seam Reap across the border didn’t differ much from my previous experiences. Hot buses, long waiting periods with no given information about further procedures, sitting in the middle of nowhere, waiting for our passports to be handed back (I know, I know, you should never give away your passport.. But everyone did and fortunately, in the end, we all got it back, too), uncomfortable small minivans, undefinable food at random road stops (I might or might not have eaten cobra on the sandwich that I got in a tiny village somewhere along the road to Seam Reap) and last but not least: 5 hours delay of our arrival. BUT we made it and I had a fun group to travel with, so in the end, it wasn’t all that bad and 12 hours of traveling is really nothing in comparison to what I’ve had to deal with before. So now, I’m just going to enjoy my first night in Cambodia in that huge bed that looks like it was sent straight from heaven. “The luxury concept hostel” actually keeps its promise for only 6$ a night. I know this is going to be a short but good stay – liking this place already. Sorry, by the way, about the leaps in time, I have been on and off writing, while making my way to Cambodia – hope everything still makes sense.