The extremely rare Irrawaddy Dolphin (16th March 2011)

River life

This morning we had signed up for a tour to the smaller islands a little further south and the chance to glimpse the rare fresh water Irrawaddy dolphin. The two main smaller islands, Don Khon and Don Det, although smaller than the main island we were staying on, it’s more popular with the backpacker crowd with a lot more going on, more bars and restaurants. It seemed to be the place everyone goes but it could also be another Vang Vieng! So we opted for the day trip only and decided that if it was our kinda place we might stay there tomorrow.

Water buffalo

Within about 5 mins of arriving on Don Khon I think we had all decided we were staying on the nicest island and had the best deal, we were staying put!

The islands are quite nice but also quite commercialised and touristy, very different to Don Khong.

Don Khon

We took some pushbikes and cycled over to the other side of the island and into another boat, even smaller than the last, to try and locate the dolphins. Between the three of us we seem to have every base covered. Lauren and Hadleigh aren’t really into bugs or geckos and I’m really not into boats and water. So we’re on this tiny tiny tiny little boat and I’m in front and see a gecko coming along for the ride, so on such a small boat I decide to keep that information to myself and in return Lauren and Hadleigh kept it to themselves that for the entire journey our driver was bailing out water!!! Perfect! ;-)

On top of the whole boat/water thing we then had to negotiate two areas of rapids! Now that wasn’t on any itinerary I signed up for! I’m still not sure how we managed it and managed to stay in the boat at the same time but more so I don’t know how we got back up them in one piece. There was a point when we all thought we were going to crash!

As far as the dolphin watching went we managed to see a dorsal fin of perhaps two dolphins before three boats of Chinese/Koreans screamed and shouted at them and scared them off!! Hey, they are rare though!

Once back on dry land we opted for a very quick lunch stop before we were off again to see the largest waterfall in South East Asia, Khon Phapheng Falls, largest in water volume, not height and I have to agree it was very impressive.

Khon Phapheng Falls

Back on our favourite little island we enjoyed dinner at our GH and a couple of drinks before bed. Tomorrow we’ve promised ourselves a layin before getting some bikes and exploring more of Don Khong.