To arrive on a small island in the middle of nowhere after an 18 hour journey with no accommodation booked is always daunting. Exhausted, we opted to delay the inevitable and plonked ourselves down at the nearest table in a restaurant shack bridging the “port” – a miniscule stretch where motorized timber canoes pull up in.
Using my pack as a back support, I browsed the menu on the table: 90% western food. The owner quickly was upon us and greeted us to Don Det and after a brief chat we learnt that pasta was the best. Pasta it was.
Bringing us our drinks, she quickly began a sales pitch for accommodation she had available. A large sized room out back contained a standard mosquito net, double bed, fan and a questionable bathroom, well over our planned Don Det budget. Politely we declined and said we would be back if we couldn’t find something more affordable where our friends were staying, and sat back down to our meals.
From our table I could see people perched on classy balconies in a separate building behind the property. For SE Asia standards it looked well beyond flash packing standards and more like a five star resort. I pulled up my Lonely Planet guide book on my phone and browsed the suggestions. We finished our meals and headed out to inspect them one by one. Each guesthouse was more expensive than the book suggested, with minimal facilities, shared bathrooms and hole-filled mosquito nets.
We ventured away from the main hub of town and kept following the dirt track, further and further until old British expat stopped us in our tracks. He ushereds us excitedly into a vacant bungalow next to his. From the porch we could see his fishing gear set up, as the bungalows were in prime position on the river. This was his escape, every year he came and stayed at Don Det Bungalows for a few months. Happy with what we found, we set out to see the owner knowing it will be well overpriced.
For $50,000KIP we had a bungalow with a good mosquito net, fan, electrical outlets, private bathroom and two hammocks on the porch and not to forget the sweeping water views, rivalling every other property we had visited that day and at the best price.
A glance at each other sealed the deal. Paying three nights up front we got a modest discount and the laundry service for $8,000KIP per kilogram. Winning!
All opinions are subjective to the writers personal travel experience. The writer travelled at her own expense.