From Pakse we caught an air-conditioned minivan (full of backpackers) to The Mekong Delta area. We caught a local longboat ferry to the largest island in the delta called Don Khong. It rained everyday and we stayed in a lovely old wooden guest house with a small garden full of beautiful butterflies. It was so peaceful and it was a good place to read and chat with other travellers.
We got a boat around the island and visited the smaller island of Don Det. We saw weaver bird nests hanging from the trees and a floating bamboo petrol pump. Life on the islands is the same as on the mainland and the locals grow rice and fish. 
There are enormous rapids between the two islands so the French colonists built a railway bridge and very short line so goods could be transported between the two islands. Today there is not much left of this.
The locals have built fish traps in the rapids 
