Overloaded Boats and Buses to Pakse

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It was time to leave the 4000 Islands and we awoke early to make the boat back to the mainland with a bunch of other backpackers. Looking around, we were far and away the lightest travelers. At first we figured maybe it was because our trip was much shorter than everyone elses. While this was the case in some instances, there were still people travelling for less time than us with 5-6 times the amount of luggage.

Anyway, the boats arrived and we were crammed in. The stack of backpacks which took up the better part of the boat actually looked more comfortable than our end where we were squeezed in shoulder to shoulder on wooden planks.

On hitting the shore, we prepared ourselves for yet another bus ride. Inevitably, you get to know the inside of a lot of buses when exploring South East Asia. This time, it was a bus to the little town of Pakse. A bus which appeared to be more jam packed with bags than with actual people and I'm sure that if there were safety officers in Laos, they may have said something about completely blocking the aisle with bags. It was nice to know that if something happended and we had to run off the bus, our combined 5.5 kgs of luggage wouldn't hold anyone up.

Interestingly, one of the backpackers on the bus asked us if we'd had any difficulty thus far travelling so light. We both scratched our heads and honestly couldn't think of one issue.

A minor delay due to a flat tyre and a few hours later, we were in Paksi attempting to organise a trek for the next day. Wandering about the street from tour operator to tour operator, the comment was made that we hadn't tried a lot of street food lately. (Famous last westerner words!) We pointed at a couple of battered thingamebobs which a street vendor was selling. Well, the rest writes itself but needless to say it was a forced retirement for Adam to attempt to recover for the trek tomorrow. When you go travelling, every part of you goes travelling abroad. An exciting and sometimes scary experience!

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