Si Phan Don (in the Champasak province), as anyone who possesses a basic knowledge in Thai or Lao will know, can be literally translated as "4,000 Islands". It is basically an archipelago of islands located along a 50km stretch of Mekong just before it starts to enter Cambodia from Laos. During the rainy season, this is the part of the Mekong with the widest breadth (14kms!) in its 4,350km journey starting from the Tibetan Plateau to the South China Sea. As the name suggest, Khamtay Siphandone (Deputy Prime Minister of Laos) was born on this island. People may sometimes wonder if there were really 4,000 islands (as the name had suggested) but I did not travel all the way here to find out the answer. The real reason for coming here is to enjoy the plain slowness that these islands dispense. One might then ask how slow is slow. Well, if one considers Laos as slow, Si Phan Don would be the slowest.

After spending almost 13 hours on the bus, it was certainly rejuvenating to be in Si Phan Don finally. As I had dedicated 4 nights here, I decided to start my stay in Muang Khong (on Don Khong, the largest island in the archipelago). It was a relatively simple setup; a road coming from the jetty and going towards Muang Saen (will talk about this later) and a path beside the river where all the guesthouses are situated. Perhaps one could explore the entire town in 30mins. I checked into Souksabay Guesthouse (50,000kip/S$8.33 per night) and quickly went for a long round of horizontal hibernation (it was too warm to walk around anyway). When I was finally ready for some action, it was already 5pm. Took a walk to Wat Phuang Kaew and observed a girl trying to sheppard her buffaloes back home while the sun sets for the day.

There was really not much to do in the evening except to chill out (saw some farangs enjoying their Beer Lao while reading by the river). Muang Khong is really a sleepy little town (there were hardly any vehicles on the road). After having dinner (fish porridge soup, 15,000kip/S$2.50) in my guesthouse's restaurant, I walked beside the river and felt its cool breeze whistles occasionally into my warm face. It was almost like my heartbeat was in sync with the soft currents of the Mekong; slowly but steadily hitting the shores, cuddling me to sleep as if I was a baby.