19 April 2008 - don kone

13th April

We had breakfast with Abby and yasu before waving them off from the river bank.

It was strange being just the 2 of us as we had enjoyed the last 4 days with them. We decided that we would hire push bikes and cycle round don det (our neighboring island). It only took us an hr or so to get round, in doing so we realised we had chosen the nicer of the two islands as don kone is not so crammed with huts and bungalows. However i think there is more going on over there, but we were happy as we wanted time to recuperate.

It is the lunar new year at the moment so the locals are celebrating, occasionally we got soaked with water (part of the celebrating) but for the most part we got away lightly. Although it was quite refreshing to be covered in water!!

We had some lunch then spent the rest of the afternoon reading and dipping in and out of the river. As we sat in the shallows we were surrounded by small fish, after a few minuets they started to eat bits of dry skin from our feet!! It was like having our very own cleaning station!!!

14th and 15th April

Both these days we just relaxed and had walks around the island. There is a rusty old locomotive which the French used years ago so we went and saw that. There are also some old French colonial buildings which were quite nice to see.

Also with the rest of south east Asia there is plenty to see by just watching the locals and their animals. I especially enjoy seeing the water buffalo cooling off in the river, occasionally you see a local riding on their backs working them.

We decided that it was time to move on so we booked some tickets to Cambodia for the following day.