The minor view of the river from my balcony, though very under appreciated this morning.
Unfortunately sensible Simon stayed in bed while stupid Simon headed out the door for a motorbike ride in thongs, T-shirt and shorts.
I know what you’re thinking – recipe for disaster – well read on.
I arrived with enough time for a coffee and half a fruit salad, no food was going to make me feel human again just yet.
The bikes are automatic step throughs so no problems with the thongs thankfully. I said I didn’t feel comfortable taking responsiblility for Donatella as my pillion so she rode with Phil. Darren, the Australian guy from The Streetview hired us the bikes and wrote out a pretty good map of the two islands (connected by a bridge – five thousand Kip for locals - fifty thousand Kip for tourists) We headed out to see the various sights. The “small waterfall” the nearby beach, the bay where the endangered Irrawaddy Dolphins swim and the illusive suspension bridge that we didn’t end up finding.
Poor little monkey tied to the tree swings his day away.
The "Small" Waterfall, the "Big" one is on another island.
The beach where the waterfalls form back into a river.
That's Cambodia over my shoulder. This is the bay where the endangered Irrawaddy dolphin are, you can see a tourist boat out trying to spot them, there are only about two hundred left.
A Teepee Resort?
The whole day was riding along narrow little tracks winding through forest and hills, over dodgy little make shift bridges and along the river, just a spectacular day. And have to admit to feeling a bit smug passing tourists who had decided to do it on push bikes.
We got back about four and Donatella headed off to the free sunset cruise run from the dreadlock bar we were at last night. I went for a rest as did Phil.
I went down to the dreadlock bar for a farewell drink with Donatella who was full of energy for her last night and fairly emotional about leaving. That turned into several drinks back closer to the main street. I managed to make my excuses and get out of there before I got myself into any trouble, it was sad to say farewell. One of the most vibrant and energetic people I’ve met in the last couple of months but after two straight days with her I needed a break and considering the night before I feel I did ok to get that far, I could see she was going to keep going for a while so sensible Simon went home.
