The border crossing
After every one of us had changed
their further plans, we took the mini bus to go to Lao over land way! :) Fabio had
already read a lot of things about the entire bribing process during the border
crossing. Most of the time, you have to pay more than normal; you have to pay
money for the stamps on both sides, Lao and Cambodia. That’s ridiculous! :D The
only good thing about this is that we still would save money, instead of taking
the plane to Lao! ;)
The bus ride in this way too smaaaall
mini bus, without any leg space or anything, took us six hours. After the six
hours we arrived at the port for the “ferry”. Funny, the actual ferry needed
another boat to take us across the river. On the other the side of the river
the pier was flooded, so we had to walk through water – that’s Asia, we would
say! :) Nobody cares! :D
After another hour bus ride we
finally arrived at the border to Lao. Now we had to pay all the money for the
visa and to bribe the officer at the border – 35 USD for the visa and 2 USD for
the Cambodian officer and another 2 USD for the Lao officer, at the end we
spend each 10 USD more than the official price! Without any checking of our
luggage we had to walk across the border!
HELLO LAO!!! :)
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| border crossing |
4000 Islands – Don Det
Behind the border we had to drive
with the bus for another 30 minutes to the pier. Before we crossed the border
our guide wanted to have 5 USD for the “shuttle” to the pier and the ticket for
the ferry! BUUT, fortunately Fabio read that it´s way cheaper to do it by your
own. So we didn’t by any ticket and the way from the bus stop to the ferry was
less than five minutes BY FOOT – the guide told us that would be more than 30
minutes! :D HAHA!! NO WAY!! We were right, he only wanted more money! When we
arrived at the pier, the ticket to the 4000 Islands was less than 2 USD! :D So,
we were the only persons who didn’t buy the ticket from the guide, we were so
lucky!! :)
On Don Det, one of the Islands
and the biggest one, we looked for a nice room. Don Det has only one small main
road where all the restaurants, bars and hotels are, so it wasn’t too hard to
find a room! :) Actually this is the most tourist island, but there where
nobody, thanks LOW SEASON!! :D
One day we rent some bikes to
explore the island and the next island „Don Khong“. There is a small bridge you
can cross, to see the other island, which you have to pay for. Our plan was,
how Fabio told us, to keep on cycling when we arrived at the bridge, DON’T STOP
and DON’T look around, so we don’t have to pay the money! :D BUT!! We didn’t
make it! Because of Fabio!!! He stopped right in front of the office and spoke
to a friend, we met earlier. We shouted, but he didn’t react. Everybody of
stopped as well and after a few seconds the officer was there and wanted the money
for the bridge crossing.. :( Too bad, we decided to don’t pay the money and to
drive back! So, we spent the half day in a small bar next to the river. There
we met Kate and Daniel from England first! (Remember these both names, they
important for another part in the blog :)
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| tour by bicycles |
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| nature on Don Det |
Kayaking tour – biggest waterfall in South East Asia, fresh water dolphins and a lot of fun!
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| kayaking |
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| Mekong - border between Lao and Cambodia |
We decided to do a kayaking tour
to see all the main attractions of the 4000 Islands. Part of the tour was to
see a small waterfall and the biggest waterfall in South East Asia.
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| small warerfall |
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| biggest waterfall in South East Asia |
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| fun at the waterfall |
Another
part was the fresh water dolphins. There are not many left in the world. But
our tour guide promised us, that we would see them (and there are only eight
left in this area) and we saw them!! Unfortunately they were too far away, so
we couldn’t take good pictures of them – SORRY!! :(
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| We had fun: Marleen, Blaine, Fabio and Marayna |
At 6 pm we returned to our hotel. We were tired but happy! :)
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