So here I am now, sitting on the porch of my zero* wooden bungalow, overlooking the Mekong river, watching its wild waters finding the way between the 4000 islands between Laos and Cambodia, with a smile on my face and a feeling of genuine happiness.

Hard to believe now, I almost missed this little gem on my trip. I had originally planned to skip the area and leave Laos after visiting temples in Champasak near Pakse on a straight bus shot to Cambodia. In Vientiane, however, my NBTTF (new best temporary travel friend) from Japan, who is traveling the South East Asia loop the other way around, told me about the beauty and peacefulness of the islands in Southern Laos, and advised me – if he had to choose – to skip the temples for it. And so I did. After all, I figured, I may have had to face another temple fatigue after Luang Prabang, and one per country is enough.

Instead, I faced another long distance bus ride fatigue to cross Laos by half its length. Luckily the logistics went without any major hiccup, and so the bus arrived in the early morning in Ban Nakasang, the town with a small boat landing and typical Asian barges to carry us to the island of our destination.

Like most other travelers, I chose Don Det. For one: convenience, because it has the best barge connections. I was going to stay only 2-3 nights, and wasn’t too keen on complicated onward travel, changing boats. I also wasn’t in the mood to live off crackers, nuts and fruit the next days, in case there weren’t really options for eating out (even thought this realistically NEVER happens in SE Asia). Though I also had a little concern to enter a backpacker flood flash back of Vang Vieng, it vanished soon after we got off the boat, and the dozen or so of travelers dispersed surprisingly quickly into various directions. Well… one direction, as there is really only a central dirt road on the island to go about. Maybe we all had the same thought of fleeing each other :-)

I didn’t feel like going for a long walkabout around the entire island, so I slowly strolled along the main road, then sat down drowsily in a café for breakfast to decide what to do next. I was definitely in a “take it easy” mode, where the thought of having to drag myself further via unknown modes of transport in order to reach the perfect spot on this island was just too tiring. I decided to follow Lonely Planet’s suggestion and look for Mama Leah’s Guest House. I am not 100% I found exactly that one because the offered guest cabanas were wood color, not blue as described, but the host lady was friendly and the place looked safe and cozy: entering the gate, there was a grassy area, almost like a very simple version of a green “court yard”, with the host’s house (the biggest building) on the left, and a row of simple shacks on the right – the guests’ common shower and toilet facilities. A couple of chicken were walking around, and… a cow. I was enchanted!

At the far end of the court yard I could see the back side of about 4 bungalows, just a few meters apart from each other. My host guided me between two of those, then up a few stairs to the covered porch. And here it was: the amazing view looking east over Mekong. From here, it was just you, the porch, the vegetation in front, and the river. Everything else was out of sight. Ok, I could also see my neighbor’s porch, and could tell from the clothes on the drying line that I actually had a neighbor, but that was fine. It was as simple and peaceful as my BNTTF back in Vientiane had described. I went inside my bungalow to put my backpack down, and found nothing but a simple large bed in the middle of the room, a big mosquito net over it, and just enough to space to walk around it. It was perfect!

Later in the evening, I sit in the hammock (YES!!) on my porch, and can’t focus on reading my book because the colors of the early sunset sky over the river are just mesmerizing. After a while, the sky takes a darker shade. This is when my neighbor showed up – it turns out he is Flemish Belgian. Natuurlijk! We chat a bit, and decide to rent bikes the next day and explore the island together, when suddenly raindrops begin to fall, and very quickly turn into an immense downpour. Sitting in my hammock, staying dry and watching this, I could not think of anything better in the world.
And after the rain subsides, and it's time to sleep, I walk in the dawn over the the small court yard to the sanitary facilities, past the cow and the fluttering chicken, and am thinking: "this is the best place on earth".