Showing posts with label Don Khong. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Don Khong. Show all posts
Sunday, 16 February 2014
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.
Saturday, 15 February 2014
Day 193 - One of the 4000 Islands: Don Khong
After finishing the Bolaven Plateau lop a lot faster than expected I decided to head further south and check out the 4000 Islands.
The first biggest island Don Khong is easily reachable by boat and car ferry, I opted for the car ferry as it seemed the easiest with my motorbike although they have smaller boats tat can carry motorbikes on them.
The island itself has one main town Muang Khong where all the guesthouses and restaurants are and another town on the other side of the island Muang Saen from where you can see Cambodia.
After having coffee and checking in to a guest house, I took my bike and went to take photos of the sunset in Muang Saen.
At first I decided to have dinner there but the main restaurant there had higher prices than all the tourist places in Muang Khong, decided to head back there instead.
Overall coning from Vietnam, Laos is a very expensive place when it comes to food and also petrol. Compared with western prices it's very cheap but for me it feels quite expensive after my time in Vietnam.
Tomorrow, I'll decide if I want to stay another day on Don Khong or head to Don Det and Don Khon instead for a day or two.
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