Day 8 & 9: Travel, Travel, Travel: The Road to Si Phan Don....

So Day 7 did not go quite as expected, and as a result, Dan and I spent the night in Lak Sao, a small town 34 Km from the border that we so unceremoniously were made to leave our beloved motorbikes at. Disappointed but undeterred, we woke up early-ish to go check out the schedule at the bus station for whatever vehicles were headed our way.

We showed up around 8:45 to find the bus station already very busy. We'd missed several trucks going in the right direction, but there was one leaving in 35 minutes that we could jump on. We hadn't prepared for such a quick departure, but the iron was hot and only getting colder, so it was time to strike. We grabbed a bit of food, then the truck drove us by our guesthouse to quickly pack up our stuff, and we were off.

A thoughtful man

The drive was pleasant enough, and though we still missed our bikes, we were thankful not to be driving through the rain on this cold wet morning. After a couple hours we pulled in to Vieng Kham, then immediately got on another truck headed down to the larger town of Tha Kek, which houses, among other things, a bus station with overnight departures to Pakse, the southern capital of Laos.

Read on to see if more misfortune befalls the daring duo, or if this is just a boring post about bus rides.

 

We got dropped off at the bus station in Tha Kek around 2 PM, and immediately arranged our onward travel. Our bus departed at 11 PM that night, and would arrive in Pakse around 6 or 7 AM the next day. This meant we had time to go enjoy the wonders of Tha Kek. These wonders consist primarily of some slightly expensive food, plenty of places to buy beer, a restaurant with WiFi, and views of Thailand across the Mekong River. We enjoyed all these things during our 9 hour layover, and around 9:30 we decided it was time to make our way to the bus station.

Miss you, Thailand

We had assumed it would be easy to find a Tuk Tuk or a truck that would take us from the center of town to the station. This assumption would've held true any time before 8 PM, but by the time we headed that way, there were no such transportation options. It was a good 8 Km to the station, and we weren't going to walk it all, so I eventually was able to get some bros who were hanging out in front of a pool hall to take us on their bikes for a reasonable fee. The bus itself was comfortable enough, and after several stops through the night we finally arrived in Pakse around 7.

We asked around, and found a truck that was headed down to Si Phan Don (“4000 Islands”) and was departing in 30 minutes. So it was another quick breakfast, this time bread and coffee (the French left their mark on Laos) and we were off on another 3 hour truck ride. We met a very cool Lao dude who spoke English surprisingly well, and happened to be a kayaking tour guide from the town we were headed to. We shared some nice conversation and some less-nice grilled chicken livers, and arrived at the wharf in Ban Nakasong before we knew it.

I have eaten chicken livers enough times to know that i don't like chicken livers. But our friend bought us them as a gift...

A quick boat ride out to Don Det, and we were finally, despite all obstacles, able to put our bags down and enjoy Chill Town.

Sorry for the boring post about buses. Come back next time for something slightly more interesting!