Arrived in Don Det last night after a relatively painless local truck took us from the bus station in Pakse. It has been a surprising that the chartered minivan travel packages and the self-arranged travel is almost always the same or close in cost. Even with multiple people and asking about tuk-tuk costs I think all farang are still significantly over-charged for the small things like local transport. I think if you stayed a while worked and made some local friends you could really live here cheap, as it is already pretty low cost to start with.
However, the island we are on is pretty crappy overall. Water in the river is a solid brown. Lots of trash has been caught on the branches of the many trees that poke out of the river, or in piles on the ground waiting to be burned, or being eaten by cows. And the sad thing is, it seems that the locals do more littering than the tourists. Always think its the outsiders coming and destroying the place, but in this respect most of the traveleres i have met are very careful about littering, putting trash in their pockets till they can find a place to dispose of it. On the other hand, local people throw everything out the bus window. LIttle children rip open bags and toss them on the ground, dogs and human scanvengers rip through trash looking for something and spreading the rest around the area. Would really like to believe that people would take better care of their homes given how easy it seems a few small changes could make a huge difference. The tree/river shrubs are coated in plastic bags. Hundreds of wispy fingers coming up through the water each grasping its own personal shopping bag.
Between that and the toilets down on the water, I dont think I will be doing any swimming.
However, the island we are on is pretty crappy overall. Water in the river is a solid brown. Lots of trash has been caught on the branches of the many trees that poke out of the river, or in piles on the ground waiting to be burned, or being eaten by cows. And the sad thing is, it seems that the locals do more littering than the tourists. Always think its the outsiders coming and destroying the place, but in this respect most of the traveleres i have met are very careful about littering, putting trash in their pockets till they can find a place to dispose of it. On the other hand, local people throw everything out the bus window. LIttle children rip open bags and toss them on the ground, dogs and human scanvengers rip through trash looking for something and spreading the rest around the area. Would really like to believe that people would take better care of their homes given how easy it seems a few small changes could make a huge difference. The tree/river shrubs are coated in plastic bags. Hundreds of wispy fingers coming up through the water each grasping its own personal shopping bag.
Between that and the toilets down on the water, I dont think I will be doing any swimming.
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