Day 195 - Around Don Khon and Don Det

After sleeping in, something I haven't done in a while despite being on 'holiday' as such, I went for a walk around Don Khon but the heat quickly made me turn back and chill for another while.
.

Later in the afternoon, I decided to go and see everything there is to see on the island, from the waterfall, temples and beaches.

Despite having some touristy areas and quite a beach holiday kind of feel to it, the landscape around the island and the waterfall is great so it makes for a nice visit.

Especially the south of the island offers some very nice views across the Mekong and the mountains in Cambodia.

 

Don Det on the other hand is hotel after guesthouse, after bungalow, after bar so not very interesting and I was glad not having stayed there. The best is to head quickly over the railway bridge to Don Khon when you arrive there but Don Khon makes for a nice relaxing few days with some interesting things to see and do to occupy yourself in between chilling.

Still, for me it was only one day chilling and tomorrow it's time to head back to Pakse and then leave Laos and head to Thailand.

Day 194 - Three of the 4000 Islands: Don Khong, Don Det and Don Khon

The morning I spent driving around most of the island, some of the temples and then back to Muang Khong to pick up my stuff and head onwards to Don Det.

After spending some time to argue the price to take me and my motorbike over to Don Det from Nakasang, I finally made it to the island.

The first thing upon arrival on Don Det was to make 'friends' with the people sunbathing at the beach. Since the boat dropped me off on the beach and I had to get my motorbike across the sand but was too lazy to push, I decided to drive through the sand. Well, a Honda Wave is a great motorbike but not really made to get you and your bags along the beach so it made noise, blew up a lot of sand and kind of let everyone 'know' I arrived. Good thing I wore a face mask and sunglasses but I did make it across and on to the main road.

Due to my arrival and because the part of Don Det felt too touristy, I decided to cross the old French railway bridge and find a place to stay in Don Khon (without the 'g' at the end so a different island from Don Khong).

Don Khon is still touristy but most of the sights are on this island, from the old train engine, the waterfalls, temples and dolphins. This is why I figured this is the better place to stay for a day or two.

On a more tech note, the Sony NEX-3N is very nice but the really bad Auto ISO implementation (same as even on their high end cameras), very bad AF (can't believe I gave Ricoh a hard time for the GR on this) and extremely poor optical quality of the kit lens are things that make me miss my GXR and GR. Still, Ricoh has not been very quick at fixing my GR either (or replacing it) which brought me to buy a NEX in the first place. Maybe I should buy a better lens for the NEX and continue with the Sony despite it's quirks.