Exploring Laos’ 4000 Islands: The Good, the Bad, and the Unexpected

Exploring Laos’ 4000 Islands: The Good, the Bad, and the Unexpected

Ladies and gentlemen yesterday I did Reach This Island I shot the live stream over here and I did get completely sunburned so today’s goal is probably to buy a hat leave this touristy area and go explore the Village Life of the locals by the way this is the only

Cemented Road on this island and this Indian restaurant is actually really good both the owners and the workers are Indians which is incredible very nice hello Nisha suggested over here that’s a place where I was partying yesterday night and that’s why my voice today it’s

A bit ruined I did party also at the ri bar I did party also at another bar I just wanted to get a beer and the night got so incredibly long anyway let’s see if one of these shops does sells heads on this island every kid drives motorcycles and that’s where I’m

Sleeping here is a clip from my $12 night Hotel this is what you get for $12 a night AC fan two bottles of water two soaps toilet paper a big mirror a desk where to work lots of placement for your luggages and a nice toilet shower fan

Everything me in the miror I’m not for sale on this side for some kind of a miracle they do sell bus tickets to Cambodia and you can pay for them while using a credit card which is incredible and so not used to pay with cards in this country only cash cash cash and

Let’s see heads oh no they are not for me n of them let’s see if we find something that is much larger here we see some kind of Hut which might be good looks ruined but who hurts at this point hello he makes great coffee over there how much is for this

One H 5,000 50 50 50,000 can you make a bit less bit of a discount huh 40 40 okay now let me test it out okay do I look nice I don’t know uh he took the motorcycle and didn’t pay or doesn’t know what he’s doing we need

A head it’s not like we have any chance it’s a bit small for my head but okay 40K I need to save my life and my neck thank you we got a head The Next Step will be to get bicycle did you test them out good morning how are you uh alive

Alive more or less yeah and it’s same I understand do you have one for me I have a big weight is that okay do not heavy I’m I’m not heavy you’re I think I think you’re lying but okay I appreciate it doesn’t really feel stable can we film a

Ride I don’t know maybe just a bit where are the brakes yeah I guess we have no option the left brake doesn’t work let’s try the right one okay yeah the right one is very very strong I guess we can get the bike we got the Hat we can continue with our journey

The bike is 20K which is like $1 the yet is $2 okay it’s a bit short for me but travel must oh my all the touristy stuff in that direction let’s go into the wild let’s hope this camera can somehow film in every possible Direction and that’s a

Place where to start the party at night here more cafes more touristic things what else more guest houses actually guest houses everywhere directions to everywhere need the mountain bike here oh no oh cap Shai thank you and here we go I know I personally Works in this

Easy go hostel I don’t know where he she by the way look how chill look how beautiful La is the most chill country on the planet there are no doubts about it I was invited today on a boat to do mushroom somay but I refused don’t waste my time like that so

I guess the rented it they went somewhere in the middle of the river and they will come back sunset time well there are people enjoying this life I do prefer exploring hello you look like Americans honestly on this island I only met the Europeans and one American

Some uh most of the people are like Dutch there are some people from Finland too and French of course there are so many French here in LA 10 20 years ago this island didn’t even have electricity since they got electricity they started getting tourists and since they started

Getting tourists they started making so much money everyone that had the possibility to transform the house into the guest house they did it some guest houses I heard they might go for like $2 a night oh my gosh look how beautiful maybe $250 then there is guest houses like

Mine $12 a night I get a see but I do not get the riverv view and then there are other places for 19 25 it all depends on you how much you want to spend right now it is about lunch time and the Sun is hitting pretty hard

Trying to see if somebody will invite us inside the house I guess it doesn’t happen so often because uh there are too many tourists on this island so they got used to them but anywhere else in the planet when there is such a chill situation they invite you look all

Houses built on the Upper Floor this is so cool okay over here they build on the Upper Floor also places where to cultivate salad another Plantation S I guess they do that to avoid the chickens to eat them Village Life on an island and again Plants protected from chickens and other

Animals so they can grow the G-Spot ghole mini golf look at the logo change nine holes crazy go ol CS Sunset side happy hour score 33 shots in one round and win a free beer it’s probably cheaper to pay for the beer but let’s

See where is the g- spot and I should be careful about not falling on this side because there is this metal that scratches Cuts what the mini I guess it is not here oh I found it okay okay it’s there let’s see if we can play mini golf under the harsh

Sun hello hello okay is it possible you want to play yeah of course oh okay that’s great thank you I never played or I played when I was a kid so okay yeah so I might be very very bad at it well yeah there’s some people who’ve never played

Whatsoever where are you from from England England yeah oh nice to meet you I’m From Italy Italy Italy what’s your name mik m in English what’s your name B yeah B like B no like Paul ah Paul Paulo Paulo Paulo yeah yeah Paulo Maldini Paulo Malini okay great place

So yeah you it starts over there you got a ball that’s okay what how do you call this it’s called a Potter poter yeah like Harry Potter yeah like bit like Harry Potter yeah okay and then you got to write down your score mhm and you get

A low score is is a good score how many times you hit the ball mhm say you hit the ball maybe three times you get in the hole okay okay so then you write down a three yeah and how much does it cost to play it cost

45,000 40 to do the entire uh thing as many times as you want okay okay should I play now or later play later play later it’s okay okay but one clue don’t hit it too hard if you hit it too hard it’ll bounce out okay no problem be nice

And soft nice I’ll I’ll try to be careful absolutely okay the record if you’re feeling confident 22 22 Peter from the US yeah and uh and bet from the UK from the UK oh no I think I have no chance well what about 42 and 53 boys H

That’s when boys play girls so we got a couple turning up a boy and a girl oh how many girls have won how many boys have won okay okay I mean the girls need more training the girls need more training they so they do filming and playing mini golf it doesn’t sound like

The smartest thing on the planet but let’s find out if it is possible some if you get too warm just come and take a break oh no oh no yes I’m completely failing at this part I guess I shouldn’t be playing one last chance oh he’s going he’s going oh

Oh no two three okay guys this way too hot to play come here in the evening or come here in the early morning don’t come here at lunchtime like me by the way let’s go find lunch in the village this one is the impossible one oh on the second

Try I guess I need more practice and less Sun nice guy did learn so much about this place I did learn so much about L people I’m going to tell you later but in the mean time what a nice place very very chill nothing major happening can just relax this is the

Perfect country to retire I cannot stop repeating and thinking about it this is the perfect country where to retire hello hi uhoh heids driving motorcycle and in Us Crazy Village Life here the fishing nets and maybe that’s where they keep the pigs now let’s let’s investigate I

Think there are pigs inside this place let’s see okay no what oh jumping out oh massive pigs I see that’s where the food of the island come from hello man how you doing let’s see what is happening on this side oh tiny birds coming out another Pig more pigs what about here

Hello what happened to you why are you white oh and even looks much cleaner than the other pigs the fishing nets interesting stuff this keeps it up un reachable and there is a small Pig over there hello piggy hey what you do don’t be scared of me

It’s all good all good and somebody left an amak over there just behind the pig so maybe where that’s where they go chill Ducks wo and that’s where they dry the clothes up here and that’s probably where they put a little fire for T night hello Prob this bike wasn’t B for this check this out we do have boat parked here and ready to be stolen and I guess they do use it in the evening and in the early morning to go fishing and I see some Nets over there already placed inside

The water and by Nets I don’t mean this baskets I guess this is a place where you come and rest above from the ground maybe this is a kitchen I see they cooked over here what else can we get that’s probably a house yeah somebody sleeps in

Here I guess I am in someone else’s house that wasn’t the plan that’s a cage for the chickens but now it’s been used to protect the salad from the other chickens regarding houses and family La is a very very strict country you cannot date La girls you have to marry

Them and if you date a l girl and the police catches you it is a $200 fine and uh if you complain they will kick you out of the country the only way you can date a l girl is by marrying her then if the marriage doesn’t work it might

Become a problem also they need to accept you all the local villagers and I heard this story about this guy there was a massive spider on my shoulder oh my gosh so I heard this story about this guy that was dating a girl they caught him and uh they made him

Do fiance proposition and then the police came from another city from a bigger city the police came to this island and find him $200 and they told to him you must marry her now lives a very very chill in La anyway no plan getting married in la oh my gosh imagine if they

Catch you another fact that might surprise many because the dating culture is not present they try to marry people when they are at the age of 13 14 and so on of course in the capital the sitation is a bit different they have Western influence it happens a bit later but in

General the majority of the country is in a Farmland they do respect their own culture and they keep getting married very very young and stay together and here is a beach where foreigners go it’s practically he oh oh my gosh that’s crazy oh wow how you doing F Daniel and

You all great all great leaving your walk yeah I’m documenting everything guys okay how are you all great we met yesterday uh in the other Island don’t tell what happened oh now I have to tell he will be so lucky he’s going to be a millionaire next year he

Fell on the biggest dump of on the planet uh almost I don’t know if it was the biggest uh it was the size of my belly so it was considerable uh and usually Europe when you touch such things you get good luck so I hope I hope not yet not yet yeah

Unfortunately we were so close to the river that he was able to jump after a few minutes but congratulation on becoming a millionaire how you doing uh fine uh I’m with Andrea just met this incredible couple again no no shitty feelings right now just an amazing food and yeah very

Chilling Beach and they told me about an incredible bridge that we need to discover and it’s not going to be safe not going to thank see you around the world hopefully in uh Portugal yes we hope so see you in the next time byebye bye and this is the

Beauty of traveling you become friends with some of the most random people on the planet from any country religion color anything so beautiful so they mention to me a crazy Bridge with a waterfall and it’s not safe at all I wonder if we should skip lunch and head

The to our death or if you should eat lunch first and the cross that Bridge later oh sorry sorry I didn’t mean it here on the left side so Buffalo having a buff in that pond over there which is amazing reaching the main road again donon is the bigger island done that is

The island where I’m staying in front of us we are approaching a bridge but that’s not the scary Bridge it’s a very chill Bridge absolutely standing place oh my gosh La the most chill country on this planet absolutely wins this title greatly what the

Place maybe there is a road how do we go down with the bike I guess we make it stroll on the side over there this STS are so C so let’s do p with chicken you have this lemon mint fruit shake yes okay okay that’s all for now H and one more

Water also water it’s small small thank you they told me that the lemon mint is very very popular in this area so I got to try it oh capai thank you you’re saving my life very nice the famous lemon and mint but in meantime there is a truck caring

People over there a very slow pace what they call a l Pace but let’s not tell them most famous dish in this place I know it is a tie dish but what can we do by the way it’s not visible on camera but the quantity is massive absolutely

Massive very good real taste 100% real taste approved 75 cents for the drink $2 for the PO tie we are $2.75 without the water maybe the water is 25 cents 50 cents we’ll find out 6 okay okay I’m going to give 25 cents as a tip thank you this

For bye-bye so $3 for lunch pretty great usually spend my money at dinner I think I tried everything possible here in La I’m going to go for dinner in an Indian restaurant and maybe spend five even $7 tonight we’re going to spoil ourselves and finish the last money because

Tomorrow we had to Cambodia but in the meantime let’s see if we can cross this bridge by the way if you’re new here my surname Ponte means Bridge so the bridge will not betray me I will be able to cross it without falling hopefully so Google Maps is suggesting this road to get

Faster to the waterfalls it totally looks like this Savanah and a perfect landscape where to have many many snakes saw a dead snake yesterday in one of these roads people passed on it with a motorcycle also didn’t make it alive that’s very cool somebody to the cows and yeah the

Road continues okay so we are safe let the shortcut the shortcut is to pass through the temple thank you Google let’s see if this shortcut actually brings us anywhere here we go back on the main road just next to the the river very nice oh some Sunset is so early in this country

It’s like at 600 p.m. it’s completely dark Compass soy waterfall here on the right hello hi hello hi if this elderly people can do it with two hands I can do it with one but shouldn’t be this confident I hear the waterfall I hear the sound of the water smashing against the

Rocks I guess we’re getting closer and closer I need three hands one to hold the camera two to hold the bike they spoke to me about this bridge they showed me photos about it and now we are finally seeing it and the water fall under it but let’s go on the bridge

First oh my gosh oh my goodness there’s only one plank of wood enter at your own risk you will not be responsible no they said we will not be responsible this is crazy does it no no okay I will use the hands to hold myself

Hold myself we need to make it alive out over here oh my gosh let me use both hands with both hands should be fine this is absolutely crazy nothing is actually holding this thing let’s try this way what’s the situation beautiful beautiful scenery incredibly dangerous oh my gosh crazy play this is GRA

Guys oh ah I’m cutting my fingers the bridge is moving so much I guess we are close enough I can take out the camera and reach kind of safely the other side one plank after the other we made it I guess that’s it for this video subscribe if you’re new here thank you

So much for watching my channel I truly appreciate it if you can support it on PayPal patreon everything Link in description nothing special the special part is crossing a bridge these waterfalls are tiny tiny tiny by the way I did reach another spot in front of us

We do have Cambodia and that’s where we are going in the next video

Laos, 4000 islands, Don Det & Don Khon: they are the hippie islands of Laos. Don Det is considered a relaxed hippy town found on the Mekong River, and when I got there I had no clue about it. Suddenly I found myself partying with foreign backpackers from all over the planet, and I got offered various things… So I decided to leave all these people and I went exploring Don Det and Don Khon by myself.

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The term “4000 Islands” refers to an area in southern Laos, specifically in the Mekong River. This region is known for its stunning natural beauty and is characterized by a vast network of islands and islets scattered throughout the Mekong River. The area is also called Si Phan Don in Lao, which translates to “Four Thousand Islands.”

Key features of the 4000 Islands include:

– Geography: The islands are located in the Mekong River which flows through southern Laos, near the border with Cambodia. This stretch of the river is marked by numerous islands, sandbars, and channels.

– Islands: While the name suggests 4000 islands, the actual number may vary, and the count includes both small and large land masses. Some of the prominent islands include Don Det, Don Khon, Don Khong, and a multitude of smaller islets.

– Waterfalls: One of the main attractions in the 4000 Islands region is the Khone Phapheng Falls, a series of waterfalls and rapids that obstruct the Mekong River. These falls are considered the largest in Southeast Asia and serve as a natural barrier for fish migration.

– Rural Life: The islands are often sparsely populated, and life in this region is characterized by a traditional, rural way of living. Fishing and agriculture are important for the local economy.

– Tourism: The 4000 Islands have become a popular destination for tourists seeking a peaceful and scenic environment. Visitors often explore the islands by bicycle or on foot, enjoy boat trips along the Mekong, and relax in the laid-back atmosphere of the region.

– Cultural Attractions: Don Det and Don Khon, two of the larger islands, feature remnants of the French colonial era, including an old railway and bridge. These structures were built to bypass the waterfalls and facilitate transportation.

– Irrawaddy Dolphins: In the Mekong River around the 4000 Islands, the rare Irrawaddy dolphins could have been spotted. Now unfortunately they are all extinct.

The 4000 Islands offer a tranquil escape from the bustling urban life, providing visitors with an opportunity to experience the natural beauty and cultural richness of southern Laos. It’s a unique destination where the Mekong River creates a mosaic of islands, creating a distinctive and picturesque landscape.

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Intro
01:09 $12 hotel in Dot Det and buying a hat
03:00 Renting a bike to explore the 4000 islands
04:55 I got a strange offer
05:42 How this island developed
07:13 Struggling at mini golf
10:52 Why You Should Retire in Laos
11:29 Crazy village life
13:59 You can’t date Laos girls
15:35 He got veeeery lucky
17:11 The adventure continues
18:04 lunch on Don Khon island
19:59 Hidden temple
21:13 World’s Most Dangerous Bridge
23:35 Outro