Itchy Feet

Woooooooow I can't believe how fast time has passed. The last few days have been very busy with Moving Forward. Indeed, in the last week, I have slept in 2 night buses or guest houses where I stayed one night each, so basically every single day has been spent travelling, I think I am beating a record of kilometres travelled by land. Ok maybe not the world record, maybe just my personal record (because people who travel for example on the transiberian express cover way more kilometres in a day, but they cheat as they just sit on the train).

So what happenened since last time? I embarked on yet another night bus ride from Vientiane to Pakse in the south of the country. After my unfortunate experience on the night bus from hell with crappy seats and music all night, I might sure this was a proper comfy bus, and indeed, t was. It was like a moving hotel. There were rows of horizontal beds (on two levels) and when I saw them I thought hey this is real comfy, as each bed is the width of a single bed. But then to my horror I realised there were two numbers associated with each bed, which meant that each bed was shared by two people. Inevitably, I was sure, I would land next to some smelly fat bloke. (in passing I mention I have never met anyone in Laos who is smelly, how do they deal with the heat? They never seem to sweat). Anyway, I eyed with suspicions each "large" bloke (in Laos everything is relative as people are smaller than in Europe) entering the bus thinking "please not you, not you next to me in my bed".
Actually it turned out ok as this tiny tiny girl ended up being next to me so all in all the sleeping went very well, and upon arrival I felt I had a great night's sleep. And I made two new friends (no, not cockroaches this time), two american law students travelling on the bed next to mine and who were supporting me in my angst to have to share the bed with a stranger :)

The arrival in Pakse went not so smoothly as the tuk tuk driver took me to god knows where to a sort of tuk tuk terminal, when I had asked him to take me to a bus station. He insisted there were no more buses to where I wanted to go, but that conveniently he could offer me a ride to my destination for 15 USD (which in this country is a fortune). I just walked away (I was I don't know where which was not that comfortable a situation) but at the end, like always in Laos, like my friend Celine says, you always end up where you wanted to go, you just need to be patient. And indeed a few hours later, after finding a comfy mini bus, I was in Si Phan Don, land of the 4 thoudands islands.
The islands are SUPER laid back, I mean everyone, the people, the chickens, the cows, everyone is just fast asleep, chilling out. The island are full of guest houses offering bungalows on the river for the big sum of 1 USD, and peole just chill there doing nothing, swinging on the hammocks and reading books all day. My problem is as soon as I got there I got really bored, it was raining like hell, I was bored on my own, and did not like my book so much. (I know, I sound like Smurf Grumpy, but I think the place was too relaxed for a Dynamic Traveller like myself :). So the next day I went back a bit north to see Champasak, and the Khmer ruins of Wat Phu which were worth the detour. (sorry no photos today am a bit ill equipped).

The most famous Khmer temple is Anghor Wat in Cambodia which I am flying to tomorrow, and it was very interesting to get a fore-taste of this empire with this place in Laos (there are three similar temples, one each in Laos, Cambodia and Thailand, showing the spreading out of the empire at the time).

Then this morning took the bus back up to Pakse, where I am staying in a Palace (where the last prince of Laos and Prime minister of Laos between 1960 and 1962 lived). This town is quite dead, so am not sad to fly out tomorrow (To Siem Riep in Cambodia). Though fortunately tonight am meeting with a travel buddy met up in the North a few days ago so it should be a fun evening to end the Lao chapter of this trip.

Am feeling a bit of an adventurer as I have no guest house booked for tomorrow in Cambodia, will be a true adventurer, just turning up at the airport and then looking for a place down town. With no travel guide as did not get a chance to get one, feel a bit naked without one but it's nice to be in the deep end of travelling a bit :).

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