It was a bright Saturday morning, and
time for me to bid adieu to the Bolaven Plateau and make my way
toward the border (which had my bike) and Dan (who had my money). I
had one last hearty meal of Laab (spicy pork & herb salad) and
sticky rice, and got a good luck/safe journey bracelet, both made and
delivered by Mama herself.
The drive was pleasant, if not as
scenic as I expected, but definitely colder than I was ready for. I
dodged a short rain shower in a cafe that served locally grown coffee
(The Plateau is the first place the French brought coffee to be
cultivated in Laos), and was back in Pakse by the early afternoon. I
stopped by the bus station and booked a sleeper bus for that night
headed north. The price was wwaaaaaaay more than I wanted to pay,
but my only cheaper option got me to the midway point at 11 PM, and I
was not trying to pay for a bus AND a room. After returning the bike
I posted up in a cafe until leaving time at 8.
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| Bus snack. Just how i like my butter: extra chocky |
The bus was comfortable enough, but way
too fast, and I arrived at Tha Kek, my point of disembarkation,
around 2 in the morning. Just where I want to be in a small town in
the middle of the night: the bus station. Having already overpaid for
the bus, I most certainly was not going to now go overpay for a room
that I was only going to use for 3 hours. Luckily, there was a very
cozy looking bench that I camped out on, and there were even several
locals staying the night as well, which made the whole thing much
less lonely/nerve-wracking than it could have been
In the morning, Dan met me at the
station, and it was lovely to see his smiling face again. Sleep
deprived but in good spirits, we hopped on a bus headed in our
direction at 6:30 AM. This bus happened to be the slowest bus ever,
but we eventually made it back to the border and our beloved bikes.
 |
| Happy to be back with our babies |
Another scenic ride through the
mountains and a not-so-scenic ride through the suburbs brought us
back to Vinh by dusk. We were back in Vietnam finally, and ready to
decide how we would proceed, something we'd not considered fully
since having our plan derailed by the Lao government/passport
debacle.
Tune in next time to find out what we
decided to do, PLUS: a bonus video of Dan singing Call Me Maybe
(warning: this video may or may not exist. But this is the only
place to see it, if in fact it does exist, so you better come back
next time and check, just to be sure...)
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