Don Sao Island

You can get to a small island called Don Sao, which belongs to Laos, from Thailand, going on a tour of the Golden Triangle. Don Sao is a part of Laos with a visa-free regime. This direction is very popular among tourists. You can get to the island by boat on the Mekong River.

There is nothing to do on the island: there is a market of many shops where you can buy inexpensive goods and souvenirs from Laos (many leather bags, traditional tourist souvenirs, bottles with a snake on alcohol, Lao banknotes, etc.) from the post office on the island you can send home a postcard from Laos (60 baht per stamp + 10 baht postcard, goes to Russia for more than a month) you can buy Lao beer. There's not much to photograph here. Usually, tourists walk around the market, buy souvenirs and go home, especially since a standard boat trip limits their stay on the island to 60 minutes. Although, of course, you can always negotiate with the boatman and for a longer time for an additional fee.

Boats to the island depart from the pier near the Museum of Opium and the big Buddha by boat. The cost of an hour and a half walk is 400 baht per boat (the price is not fixed you can bargain). Please note that the cost is taken for the boat, not the person. If you come here as part of an organized tour group, your guide can offer you this pleasure for 400 baht per person. If you do not want to overpay the guide for his brilliant organizational skills, you can safely refuse and take a boat for 4-5 people for the same 400 baht.

The island is located in Laos, but it is hardly worth thinking that you have visited the country, since from here you can not go to see Laos without a visa.