Vientiane to the Cambodian Border, Part 2 of 2.....Laos

  In my last blog I had just finished an incredible bus trip from Luang Prabang down to the Laos capital of Vientiane. I found the capital a little dull; sure there were a lot of temples, but once you have already seen so many then there are thoughts of repetition. Laos is one of the bartering countries and although the people are very friendly I do not like that system of purchase; one shouldn't have to spend time arguing to get a similar price as other foreigners (locals are understandably cheaper). I walked so many kms around the city for photo's; there were a few old buildings but nothing exciting. My sleep was not so great, because of the mosquito's, so although it was nice to hang around with locals I decided that I should just move on. I loaded a bus for the long journey to Savannakhet; now this was going to be a bus ride I would never forget.

The bus from hell.......but the people were very friendly.


 
   When I got on the bus I found that there were no seats left but rather just stools in the middle isle, so I took a stool at the back. Although it was early morning I had already started to sweat, before the bus even got going. We inched about 3 kms, the bus had kept stopping trying to fit more passengers on. The conductor was trying to get 3 in a seat where small bodies and supplies had inches to spare, we were jammed in like sardines. Next entry into my journal was at the 4.5 hour mark, "still on the bus sweating profusely, even the locals cannot stand it". My low moral caused me to focus on the poverty that I was witnessing out of the windows, I was deeply saddened by what I was seeing; one can never get used to being surrounded by real poverty.I was so proud of my wife for working so hard to escape the dim future that awaited her as a child.

Women selling chicken, eggs, corn, and cockroaches

   A lady in the seat beside me fought the center stool crowd to get off the bus, her daughter puked for the second time, much of it missing the plastic bag and landing among the stools in the isle, the aroma was dreadful. I tapped the lady on the stool in front of me to take the seat and I stayed on the stool; by this time people stood beside those on the stools, really jammed. At about the 6 hour mark a guy got up to get off and another man quickly jumped in his seat before a lady holding a small baby could get the chance to take it, I was so angry at him....selfish. At the Thakhek bus station I learned somehow that we had 2 hours to go, we had been suffering for 6.5 hours. Once the bus arrived in Savannakhet I got off and heard a collision; two motorcycles had collided across the street. I went over to help by checking out a passengers leg and cleaning up her wounds, generally all involved were just a little banged up.

  I approached a bank to use the ATM and found that no banks in the city have one, since it was a Friday night on a New Years Holiday the banks would not open until Tuesday. I found a beautiful room for 80,000 Kip (10,000 cheaper than the night before and 20,000 cheaper than previous to that) ,which I had, but there was no money for food. With no English being spoken by those that I approached I was worried, until I noticed English on a restaurant menu taped to a window, so I entered that Laos restaurant where the owner had spent 30 years in Los Angeles. He give me a meal on credit and told me that it is common for foreigners to have to cross the river to Thailand to use the ATM and then pay $30 US to come back over. The locals were so friendly so my doom and gloom (no money) quickly turned into a very positive experience.

  In the morning I left early to take photo's; I walked all around and then got down to the Mekong to catch the longboat which wasn't to leave until 9:30. The departure fee was 70 Baht, then 70 on the other side which I did not have so an American guy give me the money ( about $2). I got my money from a bank and took a few pictures around Mukdahan, Thailand before catching a longboat back. When I got to the dock the 11am boat was just leaving and the next sailing was at 12:45. The customs man that I joked with earlier told the ticket agent to get me on that boat so he yelled and the boat ended up backing up so I could get on (and for free). The Laos boat brings people over and goes back empty, same for the Thai side. A bridge joining the 2 countries was already underway which would make it easy for Vietnamese goods and citizens to get to Thailand.

   I had a most fun afternoon, two kids threw some water on me (the week long water festival was still on) and I ended up getting soaked by other locals. I finally found a house with a garbage bucket of water and containers, there I stayed with a young crowd for 4 hours dowsing trucks and motorcycles as they passed. We laughed and laughed, motorcyclists were surprised to see the foreigner and usually give the thumbs up after receiving a pale of water. I went to the hotel to pay for the night and to the restaurant to pay for my dinner and breakfast before meeting up with the Soulignamath family. I spent 2 more hours with them throwing water, it was so much fun, I saw many of the friendly locals several times. The next morning I was out at 5:30 am walking around and waiting for daylight so I could catch a photo of a place I saw down the road. I dropped by the Soulignamath's house to take a photo of them, they were a lovely family.

Soulignamath family


                               photo turned when loaded


   I boarded the 9am bus to Pakse and got into the city at about 2pm. The trip was good; accept for the all too common, drop us off 8 kms before the city so we had to take the tuk tuk to complete the trip, only to be passed by that same bus as we walked along the street in Pakse . I shared the bus with 2 Swedes who I had met 2 days previously. Once we got our lodging settled we had lunch and then a 3 hour water water throwing activity with locals. I got cleaned up and then had dinner with 2 Irish girls.     My plan was to head south and try to cross the border at Voem Kham which was not an official international checkpoint so crossing was subject to change. I was told by someone that I could cross and others said I couldn't so I thought I would give it a try; if that failed I could check out islands like Si Phan Don which is located in the south of Laos where the Mekong fans out.


                                     photo turned when loaded


   At 6:15 the next morning I caught a tricycle to the bus station where an open jeepney style vehicle left at 7am to head south. At one of the first stops on the approx. 100 km trip there were ladies selling cockroaches on a stick, I tried to get a photo but our vehicle was too crowded. Many times we turned off the main road onto a very dusty, bumpy road to drop one person off. The main road worsened as we got further south, I had to cover my face the dust was so thick. We arrived at Hat Xai Khun and that was the end of the road for the bus. The next step was to negotiate a taxi for the trip to the boarder. I ended up piling in a taxi with 9 Cambodian guys and we drove to the laughable customs house at Koh Chheuteal Tom. When we pulled up the headquarters was like a rancher house with a front porch; 3 guys in white undershirts were sleeping in chairs. When they heard us crossing the gravel they stood up and went inside to put "official" shirts on. The poor Cambodian guys were quick to process but for me it was a rare task that took about 20 minutes.

Laos/Cambodia border crossing, photo turned when loading





  One of the taxi passengers had a bit of English so the customs guy used him to translate. This man was so serious looking; instead of the 740 Baht ($20 US) listed in the travel book the guy wanted 1,000 Baht (about $6 more). I made a comment to the translator but he refused to tell the customs guy so I just let it go. Extortion is extortion, whether one considers the exchange rate or not; it is the principal. Anyway, we still had a long journey to get from the border to the Mekong, and across to Stung Treng, Cambodia.