Thursday 27th March 2008

We got up nice and early this morning and, after using the internet, walked round to the ticket office where we caught our bus South to Four Thousand Islands. When we boarded the bus, the weather didn't look too great, but when we got off at the other end it was absolutely horrendous! Four Thousand Islands is made up of land that comes out of the Mekong River (oh yeah, it's flowing ok here) - and although not far from the mainland, the only way to the islands is by boat. We had to carry our bags from the bus, through this muddy little village, to a boat that was... almost useless. The roof of ours was pathetic - it looked like it had been stolen from the back of an old deck-chair, it was so small and full of holes. It's safe to say, we'd have been just as wet had we decided to swim across to the island of Don Det. When we were safely on dry land, Nikki waited with the bags while I went off in search of accommodation.

Don Det Island isn't very big and most of the places to stay are all on one street. I walked around for about 20 minutes and then went back to get Nikki - i'd found a pretty cool place called Dalom Guest House. It was at the end of the street and was quite private - plus it had it's own restaurant and our room had an indoor bathroom - something a lot of the others didn't.

Once our bags were safely indoors, we sat out on the balcony and tried our best to dry off - we were soaked through. By now, it was after 12pm and we hadn't eaten - so we went to the restaurant for some food. We sat there for a few hours and got chatting to a girl from New York, called Natasha. She said she was supposed to be leaving this morning - but none of the boats could leave, the weather was so bad. She said the rain was actually lighter now and that during the night it was awful.

All the dirt track roads on the island had gotten pretty boggy in the rain, so we hung around our guest house for the rest of the day. Not long after lunch the rain stopped and the sun came out - so we lay in our hammocks on our porch, where we both fell asleep - although, not before i'd broken one of them. I got in one and it was fine, but Nikki said hers was uncomfortable - so I offered to swap. I'd been lying in it for about 20 seconds, when all of a sudden I tore a massive hole in it and fell through to the floor. It took me ages to climb out and both Nikki and the people in the restaurant were laughing at me. I managed to fix it, but there was NO WAY I was getting back in it - Nikki could have that one!

This evening we went to one of the local restaurants, where we had a great meal and a couple of beers. We came back to our room at just before 10pm, because we didn't want to be out in the dark... at 10.30pm ALL THE ELECTRICITY ON THE ISLAND WENT OFF. Night then!

Lights out at 10.30pm... Mum would LOVE it here!