Day 12 to 15, Thursday, January 8, 2015 via Savannakhet and Pakse to Champasak

Lost in Laos?

No, I'm not! It's just been a few exhausting days behind me.

That's why I deserve relaxation and doing nothing now. But let's look back.

I left Vientiane with a local bus. Not the luxurious version, but the one that everyone rides and everyone can get on and off wherever and whenever they want, it seems. The departure was at 7 am at the Southern Bus Station, 5 km outside of Vientiane, so it meant 4:30 am!!! Wake-up call (and that on vacation). Why so early? That is quickly clear, it would have been much more relaxed with a tuk-tuk, but the price for that should be 'Not Happy', according to the information from my hotel, it should cost 100,000 Kip, so 10 €, for that, I thanked them very much and declined.

Then I started walking with my bag and baggage, 1.5 km to the Central Bus Station from where a city bus drove for a whopping 4,000 Kip, so 40 cents. Then I left Vientiane, the bus started relatively punctually at 7 am. But it should be mentioned here that this bus had seen better days. The seats were crooked and worn out (but still somehow soft and comfortable), the air conditioning... (Which air conditioning?).

The only thing that always worked was the sound system, and so I had to listen to Laotian folk/pop music at probably the highest possible volume for the whole journey, which can be pleasant for 10 minutes. However, you have to consider here that the journey lasted a whole 9 hours!!!

Well, at 4 pm, we finally reached our destination 'Savannakhet', unfortunately, there was very little time for sightseeing. In addition to that, I was really exhausted and also had the first stomach problems. Unfortunately, the mood was in the basement for this day, which a stray dog noticed and thought he had to bark at me and bare his teeth as if he wanted to devour me immediately. Fortunately, he was stopped by his owner.

The next morning it was time to take the bus again, this time fortunately a better bus and without music. However, the driver seemed to want to fully exploit the Laotian way of life, so it took him a good half hour to drive out of the city area because 10 km/h seemed fast enough to him. The constant stopping and picking up people added to that and that should continue throughout the whole journey (with an estimated top speed of 40 km/h, he drove slowly towards the destination 'Pakse'). So it took 7 hours instead of the planned 4–5 hours.

In Pakse, everything went very quickly and without complications, and that's why I love this country. Somewhere at the entrance of the town, suddenly it was time to get off, change to a tuk-tuk, and after a short drive to the market of Pakse, change again to a slightly larger vehicle, with which I went towards today's destination 'Champasak' for another hour. And there it was charming, peaceful, and beautiful. Fortunately, there was also still time to visit the first Khmer temple on my journey before it got dark, 'Wat Phou', which was very impressive, especially because it is not yet overrun by so many tourists.

Yesterday, it was time for the final destination in Laos, Si Phan Don (the 4000 Islands), at the end of Laos, just before the border with Cambodia. My exact destination was the island of Don Khon.

With a tuk-tuk, ferry boat, bus (this time at least 80 km/h and no stops), and another ferry boat, I arrived here yesterday around 12 pm. And now it's time to do nothing or almost nothing for 2 days. Reading a book and relaxing...

This morning, after breakfast, I even borrowed an old rickety city bike and took a tour of the island (boy, was that exhausting and sweaty). The Mekong waterfall, the old French locomotive, and the temple are quickly visited, and so it was quickly back on the old 4 km long almost overgrown jungle path and now relaxing.

And now my dear friends, I'm chilling here for a little while before it's time to say goodbye to Laos - Cambodia tomorrow.

Laakon (Goodbye), Phob kan mai (Goodbye), see you soon!