We only spent a day in the capital before moving on via a 16 hour sleeper bus, tuktuk and local bus to the rural village of Tad Lo on the Bolaven Plateau. A place of waterfalls, local villages and extreme relaxation. We booked to stay two nights here but ended up staying for four as we didn’t want to leave!
Day 126: Vientiane in one day
Having not been drained of all our blood overnight, we enjoyed a slightly expanded menu in the morning for breakfast, which included some delicious French bread with ham and cheese. Yum!
After booking our onwards travel on the night bus and checking out of the guesthouse, we headed out into Vientiane with around seven hours to explore this capital city. There’s not a huge amount to do here, hence our short stay, but we knew we wanted to stop by the COPE visitor centre 3km away. We did so via one of the wats, Wat Dam. It’s not a lot to look at any more, as the Siam army supposedly stole the gold that used to coat it. Supposedly it houses a giant snake which looks out for the city…
COPE stands for Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise and is a charity or organisation whose mission is to help people with mobility-related disabilities by providing physical rehabilitation services and prosthetics. This is especially relevant in Laos as there are a large number of amputees here following the unimaginable level of bombing which took place here in the Vietnam war.
Whilst America (and its allies I guess) claimed to be helping Laos to remain a neutral country, and said they wanted peace with Laos, they dropped over 2 million tons of bombs in 580,000 bombing missions, effectively one bombing mission every 8 minutes for 9 years! Cluster bombs were used heavily, with more than 270 million ‘bombies’ dropped. Laos holds the record for the most bombed country ever per capita. Not really a record you want to hold.
The issue now is that a high percentage of the bombs did not explode on impact, and now litter the countryside. Some are damaged so much they will never explode, but others are just waiting for some movement or a knock to start them again, so they explode when farmers hit them with their hoes, or children find these ‘balls’ and play with them. More than 20,000 people have been killed or injured by these bombs since the bombing stopped; 40% of these were children.
The stats are horrific, and it’s impossible to imagine how the order to drop so many bombs here could ever be made. The justification was that it was to stop the spread of Communism and to take out the Vietnamese who were using the Ho Chi Min trail through Laos to move supplies from North to South during the Vietnam war. This is also known as the secret war, as the American people did not know what was being done in Laos.
The centre itself was small, but contained a lot of information, and a few films, including one about the work being done by the 3000 bomb disposal people to try to find and remove these bombs from the villages. Thanks to their work, the incidence of new injuries is reducing. But with an estimated 80 million to clear there’s a lot to do still!
Felling a little harrowed by the centre, we walked out and through another Wat before looking for lunch. The Wat Si Muang was very colourful!
After a quick search on Google, we found a café close by which sounded ok and for which reviewers kept commenting about the quirky toilet. We like quirky so we were sold. Down a little alley way it’s a pretty small place, but was busy. We could only claim a tiny table which barely fit the four of us around it, but there was another Western family just finishing so they offered us theirs and we got chatting.
Adam and Jenny were from Toronto and also travelling for a year with their two similar aged children. They are generally heading in the opposite direction to us so we were only in the same place for one day. As you do, we mentioned that my aunt lives in Toronto too, somewhere outside that starts with an H. Hamilton? She asked. That’s the one! She wondered what their names were out of interest. When I told them she looked surprised and said Thomas? It is!! This brought about a lot of swearing from Adam and a huge amount of excitement from the rest of us. I mean – what were the chances! It turns out that Adam doesn’t just know them. He lived next door to them and went to school with my cousins! His dad was at my uncle’s funeral last month! What a small world!
All this noise did not go down well with the café owner, who kept telling us off and shaking her head disapprovingly. She was also not impressed that we were too distracted by the conversation to pay attention to the menu and order anything. Then she started ignoring us.
After finally tearing ourselves away from the conversation enough to look and try to order, it tool a while for her to bring us menus, which she seemed to have hidden from us. She warmed to us after Adam and family had gone and we were quiet once again and we managed to get some food.
We had swapped numbers so we could meet up again in the afternoon, so after finishing our lunch at the café and visiting the Wat Si Muang across the road, we headed to the park near the river (Chao Anouvong Park) for the playground and let them know where we were going.
Unfortunately it didn’t work out with timing. We had a bus to catch that evening and they were a little delayed getting to the park so we missed each other. Which is a shame, as the kids would have enjoyed playing in the large playground (which probably should have been condemned as much of the excitement was because things were broken…). It seemed like locals had come and deliberately removed planks of wood as the equipment didn’t look that old!
Whilst they were playing, we were watching the night market go up along the edge. On our way back we shopped for some sunglasses here. This market was great as it had very few souvenir stalls as it was for locals – a genuine market. With very few Westerners there we picked up some sunglasses for Chris for just over £1, and the kids tried on these Minecraft obsession fuelled ones.
We picked up some cash and some crisps and bread from a shop on the way back, our dinner for the night and breakfast in the morning, as we were to be sat on a bus for fourteen hours ☹.
We were picked up by a tuktuk and taken to the bus station in plenty of time for the bus. The hotel organised driver took care of everything, exchanged our slip for tickets and took us to the correct bus. Easy. Our bags were loaded and we waited to board. The bus was a massive double decker shiny thing, not what we’re used to!
When we boarded, we had one of these sleeper compartments between two of us.
With the opposite compartments booked it was pretty private. We set about spreading bread with our travelling jams and peanut butter for a slap up meal. The bus moved off pretty quickly, but headed in the wrong direction for Pakse! In the end it drove around for nearly an hour, and stopped a few times, before waiting for a while back at the original bus station! We eventually left the bus station at 8.30, when we’d boarded at 6.30! Why we couldn’t have just got on then we have no idea!
Once were off and definitely on the correct road to Palse, we all decided to try and sleep, expecting a bad night.
Day 127: The night bus and on to Tad Lo on the Bolaven Plateau
I was surprised to wake up at around 6.30pm having slept almost solidly from 10pm! Evie and Aiden had also fared well, but, being taller than 5ft 7, Chris had struggled to sleep all scrunched up.
We arrived at Pakse soon after, nearly an hour and a half early despite our late departure! Once off the bus, we were greeted by the usual tuktuk drivers offering to take us somewhere. We were quoted 500,000 for the journey to Tad Lo. This seemed rather steep for an hour and a half drive when we’d just paid 580,000 for the whole night’s journey! We declined. There’s a lady at the bus station we arrived into who spoke some English and seemed to be manning some sort of information booth. She told us we needed to get to the other bus station at 8km to get the public bus to Tad Lo, which would cost 130,000. That’s more like it! Unfortunately we needed to get to this other bus station so had to take a ride in a tuktuk anyway.
We thought this was for a private ride, but our driver started charging around trying to find other people who needed a lift that way and our truck was soon filled! Bags on the roof, people in the truck. A few were dropped off on route, although one seemed to be dropped at the wrong place and got back in again.
Then we ground to a stuttering halt. No petrol! Luckily there was a station 100m up the road so our driver disappeared up the road with an empty water bottle and returned with it full of reddish liquid. Not the colour we’re used to for petrol, but presumably that’s what it was…
It didn’t work though, and the truck refused to start. After fiddling underneath (trying to push some through the petrol hose?), and hailing another tuktuk driver to go and get another load of petrol he unscrewed the floor of the truck and fiddled around with the engine. That seemed to work and we were off again, arriving at the Northern Bus Station soon after.
I thought we’d be getting in a songthaew (a large tuktuk) but a helpful man from the bus to Salaven told us there was a bus leaving in just under an hour and helped load us on. Easy as!
The buses here have clearly seen better days though – I’m pretty sure none would be road legal in the UK! Rust and cracked screens seemed to be standard, and the seats were in bad shape.
This was an average sort of one… many had no leather left!
We managed to find four decent ones together near the back and took advantage of our early arrival to secure them with our bags before getting off to eat our rudimentary breakfast of bread, our travelling jam, marmite and peanut butter, and some oranges and bananas we’d bought at the shop the day before.
We were out of water too, so we put the water filter to the test rather than buying some more or using the free water bottles we’d gotten from the night bus (but left on board to avoid the plastic…). It was a pay toilet, but that certainly doesn’t mean they’ll be good! These were some pretty dirty toilets, and very old. Using the water from the tap and the bucket thing they give you to wash down with I filtered two bottles of water in five minutes. It really is a super handy tool!
We watched the bus fill with various cargoes, including ducks! I hope they don’t get squished by all the bags being piled in!
The bus beeped when it was time to board, and we enjoyed the ride. A few people got on and off as we passed through villages, we were the only non locals on board. When there were no more seats they got creative, and a plastic stool was produced for this old man. One man was sat in the footwell of his families chairs too. We generally just stand in England!
The bus coordinator spoke some English, so he knew to stop in the village a couple of km from Tad Lo to drop us off.
We saddled up the bags and headed off down the road, but by now it was gone 11am and the sun was hot!! 2km started to feel like a very long way as we started to sweat. Time to get the thumbs out.
Either hitchhiking is very easy in SE Asia or we are getting lucky a lot, as a pick up stopped less than a minute later. They spoke no English but understood Tad Lo. We hopped in the back and they were off. The awesome breeze in the back of the truck was bliss!
We stopped them at the junction in the village where most of the restaurants and guesthouses are and felt guilty when they turned around and drove back – no idea where they were actually driving to but there had been very few turnoffs!
We hadn’t booked accommodation here, as the only place bookable online was the expensive Tad Lo Resort up by the waterfalls. We’d read that most people book accommodation here as they go though so started walking down the street. There were lots of options, but we’d looked at reviews and decided that we’d try the ones on the river and come back to a place called Mama Pap’s if there was no room there or it was too expensive.
The Sailmoyen seemed to be closed, and the bamboo huts on the river were in a very poor state of repair. Heading back out a lady offered me their rooms at the Sipaserth (we hadn’t even realised this was a guesthouse not a house as there were no signs!). A riverfront bungalow which sleeps 4 for less than £7 per night. Done! We only realised later that the bathroom was missing a sink… it had a tap hanging loose from the wall, and brackets for one, but it was MIA. Ah well – who needs a sink right? Especially when you have a view of waterfalls from your window 😊.
We ate lunch here on the river front and chilled out. Chris caught up on his night of missing sleep and I sat writing. Then wondered if the falls had always been that loud. Looking at them they seemed stronger and I remembered talk of a dam which opens sometimes. The kids were happy drawing so I left them to it and went to explore the falls. On the way I bumped into a Spanish lady who had been on our night bus and so we walked up together.
There are two falls around here, the Tad Huang falls in Tad Lo itself, and the larger Tad Lo falls a little further on. At the top of the Tad Huang falls, the water was rushing like rapids across and through the rocks and we chatted and enjoyed watching some locals fixing the temporary wooden footbridge over the river. We planned to walk over this bridge the next day to get up to the even more distant Tad Soung falls so I was willing them to finish it!
This wouldn’t have been an issue, except that the road bridge, which had been built of concrete and metal, was wrapped around a tree or totally missing! We learned later that the flooding of the river in the wet season was especially strong this year and the bridge was washed away in September (we learned later). Which shows the power of water, and also explains why the Sailomyen huts had been destroyed. Ours were more solid wood and seemed to have survived, although the steps down to the shore had been washed away!
After an hour or so, she had moved on to the higher falls and I decided I should get back before everyone wondered where I was. Then swiftly changed my mind. Who knew when the dam would next be open?
It was only a short walk to the next set of falls, less than 10 minutes. After the view point, there’s some steps of sorts down to the base. They were wooden and a little worse for wear so I went slowly, checking each step first, suddenly aware that I was alone and no one knew where I was going. The steps ended at a rock, with a drop of about 10ft down. Hmmm. There seemed to be a way to climb down so I tried it, knowing that Chris would not be impressed. At least it’s usually easier to climb back up so I wouldn’t be trapped. It wasn’t easy with my phone in hand, but doable, and offered great views of the falls from the base and a chance to stand in the super refreshing spray 😊.
I turned back to see my Spanish friend standing at the top of the rock. She’d seen me down there but was unsure of the way down. She made it with a bit of help and we enjoyed the spot before I headed off. She assured me she could get back up but I was a little worried! I needed to make sure that I made it back to the lower falls for 4.30 though as there was talk of elephants! Sure enough, when I got back down there was a mahout riding his elephant down into the river for a bath!
Despite the heat I ran back to the bungalow and got everyone to come with me to see. The first one had finished bathing and was standing on the shore, whilst the other one was in the water.
We’d never been so close to elephants before, especially with no enclosure. At one point we had to back up as it was coming our way! Evie thought they were smaller than she expected. Aiden was impressed with their size though! It’s all in the eye of the beholder.
The elephants walked back to their home, which turned out to be just behind the Tad Lo lodges. They keep the elephants here for rides and to sell bananas to guests who want to feed them. Whilst we were very happy to get the opportunity to see the elephants so close, and even to touch one on the walk back (they do not feel like you expect them to! So furry!), it was sad to see them chained up again afterwards. We didn’t want to give these lodges any money to reward keeping them chained up here so we did not buy bananas and didn’t come there for dinner.
After the elephants, we all walked up to the higher falls for a quick look, and went to the top of the falls, where the locals were all bathing and washing clothes etc. It didn’t seem like the kind of thing we should be watching so we left them to it, returning to the elephant spot where we sat on the edges of the rocks and dipped our legs into the rushing water as the sun went down. Such a peaceful place.
On the way back, we took a better look at the ruined bridge. The part that’s still standing is only up because of the tree. Wow the power of water!
Instead of dinner at the lodge we went to Mam Pap’s as my Spanish friend had recommended it. This place is run by a very sweet little lady. She speaks some English, so we did chat a little, and she loved the kids, especially Aiden – he seems to melt all Asian women’s hearts! As is often the case in SE Asia, she took our order without writing it down and so mine never actually materialised. Luckily, the portions were so big that I didn’t actually want it in the end as I’d stolen so much of everyone elses!
Day 128: Local villages and waterfalls
Breakfast was not included in the price here, so we ordered the standard eggs and bread. It’s the standard breakfast options with the only alternative being pancakes…
It was so slow to come though. It seems to take ages for them to make eggs anywhere in Laos! It’s just eggs!
After eating, we went up to look at the state of the temporary footbridge. It was done except for the middle part, which was blocked off, but luckily, with the dam closed, the only bit which needed a bridge was the start, the rest had enough exposed rock that you could walk across. Phew!
We wandered to Tad Lo falls for a look from the other side, before continuing along the bank on a trail which took us through riverside gardens and into a village.
We didn’t see any signs of actual road access here, and certainly no cars. There were lots of wooden houses on stilts, seemingly built haphazardly. All the ground here is dirt, so there’s no obvious path to follow. Locals sat under their houses or in doorways, busying themselves with their tasks. Many offered a friendly smile when we greeted them in Laotian (we only know a couple of words, but it really makes them smile to hear us try!). We wandered between houses in the general direction of the path out and came into a large open area in the centre.
Here, we were descended on by children. Initially just a few, and they were quite shy, but they got braver the longer we were there, and increased in numbers. Most looked like they should be in school but it was a weekend. They all know a few English words, usually shouted. ‘Hello! My name is!’ And that’s it – you get no name so they clearly don’t really know what it means!
We thought they asked how old the kids were so said they were 8 and 9. Then they started calling them 8 and 9 – oops! After correcting them, they called Aiden Alan, which was fun, as Padar (?), a boy who seemed to really like Aiden, kept calling his name as we carried on, which reminded us of the scene from the Alan Partridge show (redone with the gopher) where he shouts Alan over and over.
Some of the kids were asking us for pens (another word they know seemingly), but we had none. Others asked for photo’s. This little girl wanted to pose for me, although she then got a little distracted…
It was also really fun to see one of Padar’s friends point at Aiden and Padar and hold his hands up in the heart sign, insinuating that Padar loved Aiden. Padar was clearly embarrassed and chased him off! I don’t know if he learnt that, or if they just naturally do the same thing, but it’s funny to see them doing the same things as UK school children.
Having negotiated our way through the village, we waved goodbye and moved on into some sun baked farmland. It was hot walking, but genuine farmland, with a tractor rumbling past, and cows to negotiate. The rice has long since been harvested, leaving golden stubble in the fields. This would look so different in the wet season!
After a couple of km we arrived in another village and realised that the large cliff we could see was probably the waterfall. There was no sign of any water flowing over it though! Seemingly our final destination was a waste of time. We decided to carry on regardless, we were thoroughly enjoying this walk.
This village seemed less rural, with bigger houses, a road and a small shop for visitors to buy a drink. Presumably people park here for this next set of falls, or travel through here on the way to Tad Lo on the Bolaven Plateau motorbike loop. No-one here seemed quite as friendly either.
As we wandered through the town looking for the path to the falls, a kid about Aiden’s age told us we were going the wrong way and pointed down a path alongside. We thanked him but he followed. At first I thought he was saying ‘you sky’ and gesturing at himself, which of course made no sense. Then I realised he was saying ‘use guide’. ‘5000’ he said, offering his services to us for around 40p. We planned to sit at the base of the falls and eat our picnic lunch and swim, and we could see the falls, so there was really no need to guide us we thought. And there’s the child labour issue… We declined and carried on.
The path took us through their vegetable patches, with lettuce and spring onions growing.
Then the path became very narrow and overgrown and we were fighting vegetation. In places the path had slipped away, making it a little hairy with the kids.
We bailed into the river bed when we got a chance. This started easy but became a massive boulder field not much further in. We were unable to see over them at all, so we had to pick and scout our way through, climbing up and over, or under massive rocks, cutting back and forth to find a route. This involved lots of scrambling and rock hopping so of course we had a great time!
Meanwhile the falls turned out to have some water, just not a lot. Arriving at the falls they were certainly not stupendous or worth walking a long way for, but we had really enjoyed the way here proving that sometimes it really is about the journey, not the destination.
We sat and watched the water flowing over the top and being blown to different places at the bottom. The pool here did not have enough running water to make it nice, so it was rather scummy which was a shame, but the waterfall provided shade so we spent a pleasant hour here eating lunch and enjoying the cool.
We hadn’t gone far back, trying to retrace the route we’d come by, when we saw our would-be guide dancing and singing on a rock above us! He and his friends came running down to join us. Literally running, they were incredibly surefooted on the rocks, leaping totally barefoot. They wanted to show us the way back, and were arguing with each other as to the best way. At this speed we quickly arrived back at where we’d left the riverbank path. Here there’s a big drop down in the river bank. They all started jumping off the top into a pool below, getting gradually more and more brazen until we decided we’d better go as our presence seemed to be encouraging them to jump higher and further, and with way more than one at a time.
We found a way to climb down this dry waterfall as we didn’t want to return via the overgrown path and our companions soon caught up. They all wanted to have their arms around Aiden’s shoulders, fighting over him as more and more children appeared from the edges of the village. By the time we got back our three had grown to around twenty!
Some were asking to play on our phones, miming playing with their thumbs and making ‘pew pew pew’ noises!
As we expected, once we got back they asked for money, even some of the ones who’d only joined the pack around 100m before! Cheeky scamps. Faced with the moral issue of whether or not to give them money, we decided to buy a drink from the little shop to put some money in, and finally to give them double what they asked for (10k kip or 80p. For us it’s nothing, for them it’s a lot). Our theory was that this is clearly not a major tourist area, so they won’t get this every day. We handed it to our main friend, who really is a cheeky character, and mimed that it was to share. By this point only around 7 of our main companions were still there. The smiles on their faces made us glad we had, especially when they went to the little shop to get themselves something rather than running and handing it to a parent.
We had to retrace our steps home, so walked through the village with all the children again and Padar.
We didn’t stay long as we were trying to get back before 3pm which was when we thought the dam opened – if the bridge wasn’t finished we’d be swimming across!
After buying a snack of roasted almonds from some ladies wandering the paths, we reached the river bridge. Still calm. After so much sweat, suncream and dust, our feet and legs were a disguisting mess, and we were hot, so we stopped to paddle. We didn’t cross yet as we were on the shady side with gentle pools, but we were ready to head onto the bridge if the flow picked up. Seemingly the dam wasn’t opened today, or at least not fully anyway as the rocks back to the bridge were never covered.
We crossed the rocks back over and then cleaned up before heading back to Mam Pap’s. I was sure she’d said that if we came back she’d do us a free pancake, but it never appeared, and she confused my request for a curry soup with a noodle soup!
Day 129: Chilling in Tad Lo with a family dinner
No plans today; a day of learning and admin instead. There are definitely worse places!
For lunch we ventured out a little further and made it back to the road junction at Palawi. Lunch was ok, but we saw that there was a ‘family dinner’ option in the evening so we decided to come back later.
Today felt really hot, especially in the sun. And whilst I would normally sit around in shorts and a strappy top, Laos is a very conservative country, so that just isn’t culturally acceptable here. T shirt and trousers it is ☹. Aiden and Chris went for a quick dip in the river, but Aiden’s sandals broke in the thick gloopy mud. With no reinforcements coming for another two weeks he’s going to have to live in his trainers.
At half 6 the kids and I headed back to the restaurant to help with the cooking. We were put to work making what I thought were spring rolls, but never got cooked so clearly weren’t! Carrot, cucumber, noodles, lettuce, omelette and mint wrapped in a thin rice sheet.
There were twenty of us for dinner in the end, and whilst the first few only seemed to speak French, some others turned up who spoke English, including a Canadian couple (Hanna and Daniel) who we spent the entire night chatting to! They were on their honeymoon, but rather than the usual couple of weeks on a beach, they were taking 5 months around SE Asia and had just bought motorbikes to get around on. Definitely braver than us!
Sitting amongst a large group of people eating and chatting was really lovely, and something we’ve missed. Evie in particular said she really enjoyed being around the busy table as it reminded her of home, and the family Christmas she’d just missed. Finally, at nearly ten it was time to get the kids in bed. As Daniel was also retiring, Chris took the kids back and Hanna and I remained, chatting till gone midnight! Good times 😊.
Day 130: Sick children are no fun
When we awoke everything seemed fine, but within minutes Aiden vomited fairly spectacularly. Most of it went in the toilet luckily. Not a good start to the day, and an instant kill to our plans to get out early and walk to the next town to explore, before stopping off at an island with a restaurant and a boat on a rope you pull yourself over with. Or something – the French lady at the Palawi had told me about it the night before.
Clearly we were going nowhere this morning, so we watched a film instead.
Evie and I also seemed to be off our food, so when lunchtime came, only Chris was hungry. And he was bored, so he walked out to go looking for this restaurant on the island. It was so good that he returned later saying we should all go! We decided that we’d go there for breakfast in the morning, as even though Aiden seemed to have perked up a bit after having slept most of the afternoon, it was still a bit of a walk.
By the time Chris returned, it was my turn to have cabin fever, so I went for a quick wander around town (and stopped into the Palamei to speak to the ladies there about bus times as they had a different timetable to Mam Paps…). There’s not much to the village really so I wasn’t out long! A small temple, some houses along the main road and a load of simple guesthouses and restaurants along the road to the river.
When I got back, Evie and I headed back to the falls to see the elephant bathing. We weren’t disappointed today, with both elephants brought out one by one to wash. It’s amazing watching them walking as their feet make so little noise – even on the gravel. They definitely do not stomp about! And they really look at where they’re putting their feet on the rocks and in the water. I guess they really don’t want to stumble!
The second elephant was fed its sugar cane next to the river, so Evie and I stood near her watching the way she used her trunk to pick up the cane, and then hold it in her mouth whilst the trunk stripped off the older, browned outer leaves. Then it was turned again by the trunk and inserted into the mouth for eating.
The only downer on the afternoon was that Evie slipped on a rock when we were moving towards the elephants and mashed up her shin. Grazed and properly blue ☹. She was straight up though, too distracted to realise it at the time!
The decision not to go to the island restaurant in the evening was a good one. We headed to Tim’s guesthouse, which is pretty much next door and decided to all have pancakes for dinner. Evie and I were up to some food by this point and Aiden thought he might be. He wasn’t though, and only managed some banana (meaning the rest of us had to eat his pancakes – hard times!) and had to be carried home – good job we didn’t go further afield!
An early night for all…
Day 131: Breakfast on an island
Aiden was feeling much better when he awoke, so we packed, crossed the river via the temporary bridge and headed over to Fandee Island, Chris leading the way as he’d been there before, which was very odd – I’m always the navigator!
There’s a wooden platform/raft tied to a rope and rigged up on a pulley system. It’s a little wobbly getting over but a novel way to cross. As Chris had said, there was a large open café with hammocks all around the sides, and small cabins around the edge of the island, some up in trees. A beautiful place to chill.
With a French owner, the options were a little more French here and Chris’s eggs were delicious – who knew adding Dairylea to poached eggs tasted so good!?
It would have been a perfect morning, except, whilst we were chilling in hammocks waiting for breakfast to arrive, I got out of mine quicker than Evie expected. She’d been leaning against the rope and fell back off the 5ft ledge when I got up! Nooo! Luckily, she seemed pretty unhurt, except for a bit of a bang to the head. Parenting fail ☹.
We headed back to pack and check out. Not fancying the walk back to town, especially with Evie feeling a little sorry for herself and Aiden so recently ill, we asked the guesthouse to arrange transport to the town for us.
A little lady arrived on a bike with a wooden sidecar, which we could just about cram into. It was called ‘Smiley Taxi’.
We had a fun ride to town, arriving 10 minutes before the bus was due, only to look down the road and see it had already gone!! Our driver spun round and started powering down the road after it as fast as the little bike could go! Luckily it stopped to load some things on and she was able to flag them down. The locals looked pretty shocked to see a load of ‘falang’ (white people) boarding from the middle of nowhere. Haha. We found seats at the back for the return journey to Pakse.
The bus stopped just before the bus station and a few climbed out into a tuktuk. The tuktuk driver offered a reasonable price to take us to our next guesthouse 8km away so we climbed aboard and joined the rest on the way into the town centre.
Our guesthouse was ok, but Evie slipped again on some water at the bottom of the steps and bruised her arm. Seriously! She is not having a good time right now. Hoping that bad things would only come in threes for her, we walked out for dinner. The temperature was higher than we were used to further north and on the raised plateau though, and the roads were totally uninspiring. So we didn’t make it to the centre, and stopped in a restaurant by the side of the road.
On the way back we dutifully wandered into a wat that we passed, and down to the river behind it. The whole place was dirty though, and the river only held a couple of large barges shipping some water? And emptying it here. What are they doing? Presumably something to do with shifting silt/sand around. We carried on back to our guesthouse.
I had been having trouble finding out exactly how to get to Champassak without paying a fortune. Information online was a little vague and most was older than a year so took you down the other side of the river and involved a ferry crossing. Now that there’s a new bridge and paved road from Pakse there are rumours of a bus which goes that way, but not much in the way of specifics. All I could get was that there were possibly songthaews going from the market in the morning. I tried asking the guesthouse staff when we returned, but they kept pointing me to the minivans, which are 55,000 LAK each. No thanks – we’ll try public transport first!
Guess we’ll just wander to the market in the morning and figure it out then!
We made it to Champassak. Follow our visit to this quiet Mekong town (coming soon) or head back to our action packed times in Vang Vieng, the old party capital of Laos.