My four sunsets Don Det at 4000 Thousand Islands was fantastic. There was not a lot to do there other than go for walks, ride a bike or just relax. My first day I walked around the Island anti-clockwise, on day two I walked around clockwise. We would just sit around relax, listen to music and on the last day had a movie day on my laptop. It is a very relaxed and simple Island, other then at the north tip and allow the North coast line the rest of the Island is still all farming. The people are really friendly and the very basic bungalows had really comfortable beds and mosquito nets.

Then three days ago my massive and exhausting journey to the Kong Lor Caves began. I caught a boat off the Island at 11am and then waited for the 12 o'clock bus. Every one caught the bus to Pakse and along the way a few of us had to change to a local bus going to Thakhek which is the first closest place to get a bus to Kong Lor Village. The bus was crazy, it went really slow and thought at one point we might actually get overtaken by a bicycle. We stopped multiple times to pick up people and cargo and finally made it to Thakhek at 11:30pm.

By the time I got to the guest house they one had double beds with an ensuite, I could not face looking for another place so splurge and spent $11.50 on the room. After the cold showers on Don Det it was so nice to have a nice warm shower, especially because it had a shower cubicle and I did not get the rest of the bathroom wet like you normally do.

After getting to bed at 1:00am I set the alarm for 6:00am, got myself packed again and then headed to 7:30. Being another local bus it stopped many times to pick up people and one point a whole load of coal. We finally go to the town 90 minutes from Kong Lor at 11:30am. We then wait until 12:30 for the bus (just a flat tray with benches on each side of the back) to Kong Lor Village. Once here I just took the first place I looked at which is a private room with ensuite (but no separate shower cubicle so need to wipe down toilet after shower) for $5.75. I then walked down to the caves to have a look around and try and find out about a hike I had heard about that I could do the next day.