Continuing south from Thakhek, we arrived in Pakse.

Pakse is the second most populated city in Laos but the region is most famous for tourists for its high concentration of waterfalls. Here again, one can rent a scooter and ride a 2 to 4 days loop around the waterfalls. But it was raining on our first day so we weren’t too excited about riding in the rain. So we just hung out around the town for a day. We went to the market in the morning, where we saw women testing tobacco to buy in stock. A tiny pet monkey in a bright jacket was jumping around near the entrance.

In the afternoon I went walking alone. I met with people playing pool (for money) in a house, and got invited to another house to share some beer and a fish salad dish. At the temple, a few kids were very happy to pose in front of my camera.

Laos has about the same level of awareness as India about plastic pollution. From north to south I have seen locals litter plastic waste and if they weren’t such a small population, the country would quickly be a giant dump ☹️. Collecting rivers across all Southeast Asia, the Mekong is apparently one of the big contributors to the great pacific garbage patch.

The next day looked a bit drier so we rented a bike for just a day trip around some waterfalls, without doing the whole loop. Still we managed to cover 4 different waterfalls sites in a single day. Except poor Mary, who was not feeling well and we left her sleeping all afternoon at the restaurant where we had lunch, only to pick her up in the evening.

That was enough of Pakse for us; we’ve already spent a week more in Laos than we had planned for and we won’t have much time left for Cambodia. So we took the morning bus to Don Det, in the « 4000 islands on the Mekong », our last stop in Laos before crossing to Cambodia.

Don Det is a laid back island destination with beaches on the Mekong river. The center is quite busy in the evening with backpackers parties but further south is much more quiet.

Our german host in Mama Laeuh guesthouse offered really good food, including schnitzels and cordon bleu. Our german travel companions were delighted and we spent most of our time sleeping and eating and bathing in the Mekong (which is incredibly hot for a river). On the second day we rented bicycles to explore the island. We went to the « end of Laos » where you see Cambodia across the river, and to a big waterfall on the Mekong. Our German friend taught us the human catapult game and Leo and I learned to do back flips in the water 💦

Bye bye Laos. It was by far the cheapest country of all the trip and not the least interesting; so much nature to discover and so many waterfalls to jump in 😅. Next stop Cambodia.