Crossing the border from Cambodia into Laos was a happy moment. Some people were peeved about paying the $1 bribe but I was over the moon after our 4 day saga of being stuck in the cess pit of Cambodia so we (me, Emma and Sarah from Brisbane) marked our crossing with a celebratory can of beer. I instantly had a good feeling about Laos despite not knowing what to expect from 4,000 islands but I reckoned one of them had to be good seeing as there are 4,000 of them* Everything was more appealing - the landscape more breathtaking and [View Full Entry]

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Getting up early on Monday morning wasnt that difficult at all, since we went to bed at about 10 PM. Our destination was Bang Tang Beng, a village close to Kiet Ngong (pronounced Kiet Nyan), where the elephants awaited us. The first challenge for us and the trip organizer was how to squeeze 13 people and 11 big rucksacks/suitcases into a 12-seater mini bus. We experienced it takes about 20 minutes, a pinch of creativity and some people willing to put up with a feeling of being a sardinne in too tight a can. Oh, almost forgot to mention. Prior to [View Full Entry]

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After Cambodia, Matt and I headed to Pakse (pronounced paksay), a small city in the south of Laos to meet with Green Discovery, the tour operator that Matt organized our eco-trek through. We stayed in the very nice, very affordable Pakse Hotel and grabbed our last bit of Western type food at a local pizza place as we were going to be spending the next few days eating Lao cuisine in the village we would be staying in. Saturday morning we met Bhun Peng our guide who we later renamed Freddie because it just seemed to work better for his personality [View Full Entry]

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Champasak was a bit of an experience. Well the getting to and fro bit. It all started with the guy at the travel company in Pakse proclaiming on the day that we had arranged to leave that he had no minibuses today! (NICE ONE MATE!) The only alternative was for us to take the local bus service…… The pictures tell the story. 26 adults and 6 kids, along with the fruit and veg counter of Sainsbury’s all packed into a little van!! It wasn’t as bad as it looked (apart from the sleeping lady on my shoulder!). Even with a [View Full Entry]

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Champasak _______________ E: Hi everyone, So I left Vientiane on the night bus. We arrived at 6:00 am in Pakse. A hoard of Tuk Tuk drivers was waiting. I decided to skip Pakse altogether and instead head for Champasak, a bit further south. After a while I figured the next bus would not leave 'till 8 am, so I decided to go for the more authentic option: Tuk Tuk to the local market and from there with a Sawngthaew that would leave around 7 am. So there I was, surrounded by local women coming from the market, their kiddies, rice bags, [View Full Entry]

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There's not too much to write about my short stay in Pakse, where I went to recover from the Loop trip and get money at one of the few ATMs in Laos. It was soooo hot that I spent two days taking cold showers and sitting in front of the fan reading. Quite pleasant actually. When I decided enough lounging around had been done, I caught a small longtail boat with six other tourists for an hour and a half ride to Champasak. It's a small town with very little traffic. The main attraction are the pre-Angkorian temples. With a [View Full Entry]

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We have arrived in Laos and every thing is so much quieter and slower (sloa) than anywhere else we have been. We arrived in Pakse and where we were 2 of 4 passangers getting off the plane there. Getting a visa was a question of 10 minutes and 35 USD. Pakse felt like a small american town in the midwest is supposed to feel like. Hardly any traffic very wide streets, large four-wheel drive vehicles (some one is doing well from the dollars we leave here?). First we headed for the ferry station, everyone we met said that there were no [View Full Entry]

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Nachdem wir Savannaketh auf unserer Rueckreise hinter uns gelassen haben, blieben wir fuer eine Nacht in Pakse, der zweitgroessten Stadt in Laos. Dort trafen wir ein polnisches Maedchen, die so begeistert von Champasak erzaehlte, das wir uns entschlossen noch einen Abstecher dorthin zu machen, da es eh auf unserem Weg lag. Champasak ist nur mit einer Faehre zu erreichen, es gibt keine Bruecken dorthin, ausser man nimmt eine Heidentortour auf sich und nimmt die Bruecke bei Pakse um dann auf nicht befestigten Strassen sich den Weg dorthin zu bahnen. Nein, wir nahmen den einfacheren Weg, und die [View Full Entry]

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Upon leaving Pakse for Champasak, we had are only real frustrating experience with the local transport. We all got on a tuktuk, negotiated a fair price to the bus station, and were dropped off only 2 out of the 10ks into the trip at a market, where we were told the bus would pick us up. There were many sawngthaews (big tuk tuks) leaving the area, so we got out, paid the driver and went to wait for bus. No sooner did our tuktuk pull out than other tuk tuk drivers come up offering to drive us to the bus station. [View Full Entry]

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In Southern Laos I saw a wonderful Khmer style temple that was built around the same period as Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and was almost as impressive in its own way. I hired a bicycle to cycle to the ruins and had a great day trip exploring the area. The temple was built at the edge of a mountain with steps leading up to different levels, and as I climbed up each level I kept meeting different people and stopping to have a chat! I finally met some people from Adelaide, which was really nice! I had been travelling for 8 [View Full Entry]

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