18 April 2008 - 4000 island

10th April

In the m morning we walked down to the harbor in hope of finding as bus on the other side of the river to drive us south to 4000 island. We got on the make shift ferry, 3 boats with a wooden platform balanced on top. Dan asked some of the locals if they knew where we should wait whilst i got chatting to a Thai lady. She very kindly offered us a trip to the main rd in the back of her pick up truck as apparently it was quite a way from the dock.

She was right it must have been at least 6km, we were very grateful. We got to the main rd and waited. As our journey progresses we've found that waiting is a HUGE part of traveling!! Whilst we waited a goat got run over!! I'm surprised we haven't seen it before as there are literally animals running all over the place!!

After 15Min's of waiting and repeatedly telling a tuk tuk driver he was asking too much for the trip a VIP bus turned up!! A VIP bus is a huge coach with air con and seats which recline further than your average coach. We were chuffed, the air con alone was hugely appreciated!! It was also a fair price so we were happy.

After an 1hr 1/2 they stopped and told us we had to get a boat from that place to the island. There are 3 main islands you can stay, don Kong, don det and don kone. The later 2 only have electricity 4 hrs of the day from 6pm to 10pm. We decided we would spend a few days on the biggest and more developed island to begin with.

By 12pm we had arrived on don Kong, again our budget was not big enough to warrant a air con room so a fan it was, little good it did!!!

To our delight we bumped into Abby and yasu just after lunch, we spent the afternoon and evening with them exploring the island a bit. Most of the island is villages and paddy fields with water Buffalo and all the other animal roaming by.

Quite often children run up to you begging, Abby had a great tack tick instead of giving them anything she sang the wheels on the bus!! The kids at first are a bit perplexed but after a while they start to giggle and a few join in with the actions, Dan and yasu also joined in whilst i videoed it on my camera!

Dan and i had decided that the following we would go to the other smaller islands as there was not much to do here and the banks were high so the river wasn't very accessible for a quick dip. Abby and yasu had also come to the same conclusion and had found a excursion that would get us there. It also included seeing the iwraddy dolphins which are endangered with only 100 left in the world. So we arranged to be pick up the next day at 8am.