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Published: October 30th 2007
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It doesn’t seem that long ago since our last update but we figured that we should do more, shorter entries, which should make it easier to follow and we can remember where we have been and what we have done! At the last count, we stayed in 29 different hotels and traveled a total of about 6000km overland since leaving the UK 76 days ago. Quite often we discuss the things that we miss and decided that the main things are: (not necessarily in order of preference) friends and family, being able to prepare our own food (especially wine, cheese and a decent cup of tea), hot water, a bath (for Vanessa), a sofa and a comfy bed. On the subject of food, we did allow ourselves a posh meal out in Vientiane at the Caves Des Chateaux where we had BBQ steak, sauce and potatoes, washed down with some red wine (our first since leaving home). We probably give the wrong impression of backpacking on a shoestring if we tell you that the next day we spent lounging by the pool at the Settha Palace hotel which is a fantastic, really posh hotel with a lovely pool and surrounding gardens
(unfortunately we were only day guests).
A 6 hour, 300km journey on a bus playing weird Asian movies and Thai pop music as loud as possible, makes for a very long journey. During most bus journeys, the bus will often make a ‘toilet stop’ and everyone will get off and find a spot in the bushes! Finally we arrive in Tha Khaek and the ‘Travel Lodge’ which is a great base to explore the surrounding Khammuan lime stone area along the renowned, ropey route 12. So we jumped on a tuk-tuk for the day and let the driver take us to various caves, we followed a local guide into some woods with no idea what we are about to do and after killing a snake on the way, we arrive at a cave entrance where a small river runs through. He motions to us that we are about the get wet, we change into swimming stuff, he strips down to his pants and we follow him into the cave through water up to our waists and eventually fully in the water. It’s quite tricky because you can’t see what’s under the water and we need to climb over some
sharp, slippery rocks, it turns out to be quite an adventure and lots of fun but we were both glad to make it to the end. Some good local food - dried buffalo, sticky rice and spicy papaya salad made it an excellent day out.
Traveling further south through Laos, still following the Mekong river, we did a relatively short hop to Savannakhet - a very sleepy town with crumbling old French colonial buildings. Just about the best thing in Savannakhet was the cold ‘Beer Lao’ on the banks of the Mekong at sun set watching the local men prepare for the up-coming boat race. A couple of really dodgy bikes just about got us around to see the sights - not that there were many but nice to ride around anyway. We also use them in the evening to eventually find ‘Mama’s restaurant’, which is a great little place to eat, just like sitting in someone’s lounge with sofa’s, a TV and looking though the family photo albums.
From Savannakhet we took another public ropey bus for 5 hours, 200km for an over night stop in Pakse. The southern part of Laos is definitely more rural than
the north and we see a lot more ‘live stock’ being transported and at the markets at the side of the road selling live crickets and other insects, frogs, snakes, birds and various furry looking animals (which were dead). The whole journey was through rice fields with wooden shacks dotted around, grazing buffalos, cows and rough looking village people.
An early start the next day for short 2 hour boat down the Mekong to our next destination - Champasak, it’s lovely to see the small villages on the banks and all the little kids come running out to shout ‘Sawadee’ (Hello) and wave. We stayed in a nice bamboo bungalow for 2 pounds a night and cycle about 20km to the 6th - 8th century ruin and world heritage sight - Wat Phu Champasak.
A fun journey the next day firstly on a barge (actually 3 barges bolted together) which serves as a car ferry back across to the east side of the Mekong and then further south on a packed shared public Sawngthaew (converted truck with seats in the back) along route 13, where Daniel had his first experience of traveling on the roof with squealing pigs
and chickens, which was great for 10 minuets and then got very hot and uncomfortable after 2 hours! Another boat finally got us to the island of Don Khong, part of Si Phan Don (4000 islands). Don Khong is very basic with no cars and only the odd moped cruising around, we did a nice loop of the southern part of the island on the bikes of about 25km, stopping in a real shanty market town for noodle soup.
From Don Khong we took another boat for a short hop south along the Mekong to Don Det, which turns out to be even more basic that Don Khong - no roads or electricity! We stayed in a really nice bungalow right on the river at the Suksan guesthouse for 3 pounds a night with huge cockroaches thrown in for free! Hammocks on the veranda became a favorite past time and a great way to relax after some hard traveling through Laos. We also hired some bikes to visit the neighboring Don Khon Island and see the stunning Khon Phapheng falls, a 13km stretch of powerful rapids.
We were now prepared for our next overland border crossing into northern
Cambodia, which is described as ‘unofficial’ and ‘difficult’ with various possible scams along the way. We jumped on a small boat to take us across to the main land before being shoved on a minibus. We then drove for about 30mins and arrived at a checkpoint which we think is immigration, the driver got out and started some more negotiations before they decided that the bus had ‘broken down’, we suspect it was a fake break down and a delaying tactic because they didn’t spend more than 5 seconds looking at the engine and just switched it off. They then negotiated a truck with plastic chairs in the back and after 20mns we arrive at another check point but nobody told us what to do as the driver just walks off, we finally figure out we this is where we need to get our Laos exit stamp. Eventually we find out that we need to wait another 30mins for another bus to turn up to take us to the Cambodian border, a bumpy off road section though the forest in what seems, no-mans land. We arrive at the next checkpoint where we negotiated a fee for the Cambodian entry stamp
(we already had visa’s), they are not supposed to ask for any money at all, we got away with paying 1 USD each rather than 2, not a lot of money to save but it’s the principle! We get back on the same bus for about an hour before we arrive at Stung Treng where we get on a boat to cross the river and then told to wait for 30mins for yet another bus to arrive. The next bus turns up and the driver tries to persuade us not to get off in Kratie and go all the way to Phnom Penh (an extra 5 hours!), we persist and they agree to stop in the place we paid 20 USD to get to! About 30km outside Kratie, smoke starts to come out from the dashboard and fills the bus with exhaust fumes, we manage to get to Kratie where the driver announces to the other passengers that the bus has broken down and the must stay in Kratie for the night! We were more then pleased to eventually limp into Kratie and find a guest house for the night.
The main reason for a stop over in Kratie was to see the endangered fresh water Irrawaddy dolphins that inhabit the Mekong, there are apparently only 75 of these dolphins left in this area, so we were really glad to see some on our boat trip as the sun sets.
About 250km and 7 hours on a bus got us all the way to the capital city, Phnom Penh in eastern Cambodia where we plan to stay for a few days before heading west to Siem Reap and the Angkor Wat.
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RTW
Daniel & Vanessa
Birthday!
Thanks for all the birthday messages - we finally managed to celebrate in style in Phnom Penh at the Foriegn Correspondents Club with a posh meal and lots of wine. V x