Don Det () is an

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

in the

Mekong River The Mekong or Mekong River ( , ) is a transboundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's List of rivers by length, twelfth-longest river and List of longest rivers of Asia, the third-longest in Asia with an estimated l ...

in the

Si Phan Don The Si Phan Don (; meaning '4,000 islands') is a riverine archipelago in the Mekong River, Champasak Province in southern Laos. Si Phan Don is part of Khong District, including the islands and part of the mainland in the east. Si Phan Don is d ...

("Four Thousand Islands")

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

Champasak Province Champasak (or Champassak, Champasack – Laotian language, Lao: ຈຳປາສັກ ) is a province in southwestern Laos, near the borders with Thailand and Cambodia. It is 1 of the 3 principalities that succeeded the Laos, Lao kingdom of Lan ...

of southern

Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

History

The Don Det–Don Khon railway was a -long narrow-gauge

portage railway A portage railway is a short and possibly isolated section of railway used to bypass a section of unnavigable river or between two water bodies which are not directly connected. Cargo from waterborne vessels is unloaded, loaded onto conventional ...

on the islands of Don Det and Don Khon, opened in 1893 to transport vessels, freight, and passengers along the Mekong River, and closed since the

1940s File:1940s decade montage.png, Above title bar: events during World War II (1939–1945): From left to right: Troops in an LCVP landing craft approaching Omaha Beach on Normandy landings, D-Day; Adolf Hitler visits Paris, soon after the Battle of ...

Geography

The walking path around the island is . Don Det is linked to its twin island Don Khon by a bridge. Don Som, the closest island accessible by

pirogue A pirogue ( or ), also called a piragua or piraga, is any of various small boats, particularly dugouts and canoes. The word is French and is derived from Spanish ''piragua'' , which comes from the Carib '. Description The term 'pirogue' ...

, is from Don Det. There is a

Buddhist temple A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhism, Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat, khurul and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in B ...

and two

primary schools A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

on the northern part of the island.

Climate

Don Det features a

tropical wet and dry climate Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories ''Aw'' (for a dry "winter") and ''As'' (for a dry "summer"). The driest month has less than ...

. While the city is generally very warm throughout the year, it is noticeably cooler during December and January. Don Det also experiences wet and dry seasons, with the wet season from April until October, and the dry season during the remaining five months. Temperatures range from 15°C to 38°C.

Tourism

The

Khone Phapheng Falls The Khone Falls and Pha Pheng Falls (; , ''Lbak Khaon'') together form a waterfall located in Champasak Province on the Mekong River in southern Laos, near the border with Cambodia. It is the widest waterfall in the world at 10,783 metres (35,376 ...

, a succession of impassable rapids that gave rise to the construction of the railway, are among the main features accessible from Don Det. Freshwater

Irrawaddy dolphin The Irrawaddy dolphin (''Orcaella brevirostris'') is a euryhaline species of oceanic dolphin found in scattered subpopulations near sea coasts and in estuaries and rivers in parts of the Bay of Bengal and Southeast Asia. It closely resembles the ...

s (''pakha''), an endangered species, are now extinct.

Wildlife

s, water buffaloes (''Bubalus bubalis''), common house geckos (''Hemidactylus frenatus''), bronze grass skink (''Eutropis macularia''), and

bioluminescent Bioluminescence is the emission of light during a chemiluminescence reaction by living organisms. Bioluminescence occurs in multifarious organisms ranging from marine vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as in some fungi, microorganisms inc ...

beetles :c:File:Close-up view of a bioluminescent beetle Elateroidea.jpg can be seen in Don Det.

Gallery

References

External links

*{{Wikivoyage-inline, Don Det Populated places in Champasak Province Populated places on the Mekong River Islands of the Mekong River River islands of Laos