Yesterday we bought the transport to Don Det from the Sorya bus company (USD15/person). Even tough we found there is the same transport to Don Det which only cost USD13/person at U Hong Restaurant and Guesthouse. We decided to took the Sorya bus as we think it is more reliable but it is not the case.
We waited at the Sorya bus office at 6:40am for waiting the van coming at 7am. The van was late for 10 minutes. After van picked up all the passenger, there were 5 foreigner including us, 10 local adults, 1 child and 2 babies. This van was made for only 13 seats in 4 rows plus the seat beside the driver. But it was able to fit 4 persons in a row.
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| Sorya bus office at Kratie |
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| Van from Kratie to Stung Treng |
The next change transport location is Stung Treng. This journey took us 3 hours with sometimes bumpy road and sometimes flat road. At a restaurant of Stung Treng, the driver call us to get off and change bus while he fetched other local people to other places. At this restaurant, we had to change our ticket to theirs. It was the Che Nang Travel Bus company. It has bad review on Tripadvisor.
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| Restaurant at Stung Treng |
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| Van from Kratie to Stung Treng |
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| Bus from Stung Treng to the border at Dom Kralor |
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| Changed to Che Nang Bus ticket and the boat ticket |
We waiting in this restaurant for almost an hour time, then the lady which change the ticket for us call us to get on the bus. This bus is only filled by foreigners. The journey to the border at Dom Kralor is very bumpy as the it is unpaved road. The trees at the road side were in red color as they were covered by the red sand.
1300+ - We reached the border at Dom Kralor. We get off the bus and this bus picked up another group of foreigner that going to the Cambodia side. There is a man told to fill the immigration form and visa form. As we malaysian are visa exempted country for Laos, we walked to the immigation ourselves after filled up the immigration form. While others were Europeans which need the Visa and that man tried to charge them expensive visa fee. At the Cambodia side immigration, the officer told us that we need to pay the USD2 stamd fee per person after he stamped the departure stamp. We asked many question for this fee and we didn't give any money at last. Then we continued walking to the Laos immigration building.
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| Few restaurants and shops at the Dom Kralor |
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| Cambodia Immigration building |
Once we at the arrival counter of the Laos immigration border. I gave the passport to the custom officer. Then we wrote our name, nationality and passport number on a book. After that, the officer said need to pay USD2 for the stamp fee. This is the different story from the Cambodia side as the officer haven't stamped us the arrival stamp. We asked why for many times. He still refused to stamp until he just put our passports at a side. At last, we paid the USD2 per person (Forced us to bribe) as we had no choice!
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| Laos Immigration building |
1415 - There was a man called us to wait at a wooden restaurant which has none of the people except the man which is the boss of the restaurant. There is no one from the travel agency told us what we need to do here. But the man said that the van will come at 4pm. We were shocked and just wait in this restaurant. This restaurant is in middle of nowhere of the jungle except the immigration office and a very modern Duty Free shop with coffee shop there.
1530 - The van came 30 minutes early that the man said. We get on and another driver bought us to the Ban Nakasang which is the place to get boat to the Don Det. The road after the Laos border is well paved that we didn't feel bumpy at all. But we reaching the Ban Nakasang, it was unpaved road again.
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| Van from Laod Border to Ban Nakasang |
1600 - Reached the Ban Nakasang. The driver called us to walked to the boat area ourselves. But we changed the money first as the rate in Don Det is not that good. We able to change LAK/USD for 8300 at a normal shop writing the money exchange.
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| Ban Nakasang village |
After walking to the boat area, there is counter in the building that you need to change the ticket again. Then only 8 of us, the foreigners were sitting on this big sampan. Actually, it is not a boat as it was quite unstable after we get on.
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| Actually, this is not the way. Should turn right from the main road |
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| Changed the boat tickets |
After 15 minutes boat ride, we reached the Don Det. Then continued to walked to our booked guesthouse. The distance written in the Booking.com is 750m from the town center. However, it was actually 1.5km or 20 minutes walk from the place we get off the sampan. It was quite tired to walk for these 20 minutes as we had traveled almost half day to here. Once we reached the guesthouse, we suddenly feel that we were out from the civilization. That the double bed is in a small wooden chalet and the wooden toilets are separated at the outside which is around 10 meters away from our rooms. There is no shower in the toilet and there is a cement containers that hold the water and bath with a small container. There are two hammocks in front of the room. Since we were so tired, I just lied down on the hammock and she straight away sleep on the bed. By the way, this accomodation is the cheapest that we had found in Booking.com which cost USD6 per night.
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| Leaving the Ban Nakasang |
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| Towards Don Det |
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| Mr Phao Riverview Bungalow double bed room |
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| A chalet type with hammocks in front |
We didn't have dinner tonight as she continued sleeping while I still have a bit stomachache that don't feel like to eat anything. Hence, we skipped lunch and dinner today while just had some snack on the journey. It was a very tiring journey!
Our Expenses
Van+Bus+Van+Boat : USD30
Stamp Fee : USD4
Accomodation USD6
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