This is where I share a mix of my illustration and a touch of pretty things and places I've discovered in my day.

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Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Backpacking sketchbook 6: South - finally!

What a relief to get going. We flew to Pakse, jumped on a songthaew and got out of Pakse as soon as possible. Thank God we weren't stuck there! Our journey to the 4000 islands took a good few hours on the road, it was great to cover some distance and get some clarity and open space.

The 4000 Islands are located on the Mekong river in the South of Laos. There are various islands to visit and we liked the sound of Don Det an Don Khong. A fisherman took us to Don Khong in his longtail boat. It was wonderful to be surrounded by a mass of fast moving fresh water - such a different landscape and energy. We wanted to go to Don Khong because of its traquility and silence - but it was a little bit TOO quiet - with no other diners in any restaurants in sight. It was a strange feeling to order a banana pancake and after waiting 10 minutes you see one of the owners little sons come back with a bag of eggs. Things move slooooow here. We made our move after one night to Don Det more due to lack of time than lack of fast paced life.

Don Det is a typical place for backpackers to get stuck in. It's chilled and quiet but with enough travellers around to have a good time. The perfect place to find some hippies moving around in a world of cherry picking, working in hostels and smoking copious amounts of bamboo bongs. It hasn't been trampled on to a point of aboslute tourist destruction and the basic accomodation keep the lanie's away... for now.

I turned my drawing into a mural at "The Happy bar" and loved it. We savoured the little time we could spend until we had to move on to Ubon Rachatani to catch a flight to Phuket.

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