Don Det is popular with backpackers and hence boasts world cuisine and english speaking locals.
But venture inroads into the villages and you will find another world.
Places where you will be welcomed and offered chilled bottles of ‘Beer Lao’ and authentic local snacks and food, and even places where people will insist that you have lost your way and the villages are closed for tourists.
But once they see that you are there just to absorb the culture, let time be and just hang around trying to get to know them, everyone will greet you with wide smiles and will no longer try to shoo you away 🙂 .
I loved every moment of the morning I hired a bicycle and rode along Don Det and Don Khon with no map in hand.
This gentleman was beginning his day with a bowl of rice and fresh greens. His wife offered me some tea and we spend a warm morning in each others company, communicating only with smiles and small gestures.
It felt like just the thing I needed, to be in a space and time where I was momentarily lost in translation.
Have you been there, and Don Det?