Southern Laos, part 2

We got to downtown Pakse and found some rooms - we settled into separate hotels but agreed to meet up a bit later. At about 3, we set off to find an ATM for the boys, which turned out to be a task that was easier said than done. We found a couple, but both were out of money (it was a Sunday), then we finally found the last one, which miraculously had money. One of the first things in our favor that way after the delayed bus, the lack of English speakers to point the way to Pakse, and the lack of functioning (and nearby) ATMs.

What else is there to do in a boring town at 3pm other than sit down and have some beers? We couldn't come up with anything else, either, so that's what we did as we completed Operation: Feed the Boys. We had a couple of beers, then it was naptime, so I went to my room for a couple of hours. Later on, as I headed to the internet, I ran into them again. It turns out that they hadn't been napping - when they got to the hotel, there were some Laotians there sitting around drinking beer and whiskey, so they joined them, as any good traveller would. I promised them I would stop by when I finished up my internet time.

Thankfully, when I got there, the booze was nearly out, and when it was, the party broke up and I went out for dinner with the two guys I'd been travelling with.


The next day, we arranged to be picked up at 8am so that we could get to Champasak early enough for the two boys to mosey on down to the Four Thousand Islands at the southern tip of Laos. Our van dropped us off on one side of the river, and we hired a guy with a dugout canoe to take us across to the other side. The guy started out paddling, then switched to a motor when we were in deep enough water. About halfway across the river, the Argentine started fidgeting, which caused the boat to start rocking and nearly provoked a heart attack when I started to think about the murky water claiming my camera and ipod. But we made it safe and sound.

After haggling a bit, we got a tuk tuk ride to a hotel which had not only a restaurant with beautiful views of the river, but it also rented us bicycles. We chowed down and then set off on our bikes to head to the ruins.

I loved our bike ride! I hadn't done much exercise besides tote my backpack from bus to hotel, and seeing the countryside by bike was very refreshing. It was about a half an hour through some rural areas until we finally reached the ruins. We propped up our bikes against a sign (we weren't given a lock), and we headed towards the ruins.


Had I already seen Angkor Wat, I wouldn't have made the effort to see these ruins, but since they were described as Laos' best ruins by my trusty Lonely Planet, I decided to check them out to get a taste of what was to come in Cambodia. It was well worth it. There were some bigger buildings down below, but then we tackled a big staircase up the hill. The views from above were spectacular! The ruins weren't too bad, and there were a couple of cool carvings in these massive boulders up top that we were climbing around. It was pretty hot, so after about an hour or so, we climbed back down and onto our bikes, which were still propped up next to the sign down below.

The ride back was equally amazing, and school had just gotten out, so we passed a lot of uniformed kids for about 10-15 minutes of our ride. The rest of the time, it was rice paddies, oxen, and wooden houses. We nearly grabbed some lunch on the way back, but in addition to the lack of English spoken, we also were able to deduce that there was a lack of items on the menu, and our lunch would have been ramen noodles.

So we peddled on and arrived back to the hotel a bit sweaty but in good spirits and happy that we'd taken the time to make our way to the ruins.

We retraced our steps across the river and back to the main road where my last view of my two travelling buddies was them climbing into a mini-van with a random Laotian family they decided to hitchhike with. As my luck had it, I had to wait about 20 minutes for the first bus to pass by going north back to Pakse, but the bus was super-luxury and even included (broken) massage functions on the nearly horizontally-reclining seats. Too bad my ride was only about 30 minutes. I still dozed.

The bus dropped me off at the fancy first class bus station which was much cleaner than the previous day's market/bus station, but I found myself only about 2 blocks away from a massive market. I walked through it, snapped a few shots (like this one), then got a ride back into town in a motorcycle sidecar-type thing.

Pakse remained uneventful when I got back in town, but I was tired ater my action-packed day, so I basically did nothing. In true traveller fashion, I did run into a couple in the internet cafe that I'd more or less bumped into in nearly every town since the Thai/Laos border.