Onward to the 4,000 Islands, Laos

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Boy, that was close. I woke up at 5:33 and realized we had missed our bus! Ronald sprang into action and went to the front desk and I packed up my bag. We were lucky and a tuk tuk driver was waiting for us about 5 minutes later and took us not too far away where a van was waiting with people in almost every seat and all of the bags waiting on the sidewalk to be loaded.

At about 6:15 everyone was loaded in the van with the bags in the aisles and in front of the door. It was the strangest van ride, not only because things were crammed into every space available, but because the seats weren’t spaced evenly. On one side there were five rows of seats while on the right there were only three. What with the cramped spaces, my slanted seat, the girl next to me (who cracked her sunglasses a couple of times on my shoulder as sleep overtook her), the driver who drove a 22+ passenger van like an ATV, and the very poorly paved roads, the three plus hour journey to our next bus was less than pleasant and I was very much ready to get off.

When we were switching buses we also had a little bit of time to buy some snacks so we got a baguette and used some remaining cheese slices (don’t worry, they were Laughing Cow) as our breakfast. On the VIP bus (with A/C and a midget’s toilet) we left a little after 10:15 and stopped for lunch at 13:30 on the side of the road. There they offered less-than-desirable choices of sustenance, so Ronald got some Ramen noodles and I got 5 hard-boiled eggs ($1 I think) and two baguettes (one with, yes, Laughing Cow cheese, and the other plain) for 6,000 riel.

By 17:00 we had arrived at the border. The man on the bus who spoke English had offered to do everything for us with a $1 fee for his services. This meant that I would have paid him $40 (35 for the visa, 2 for the stamps leaving Cambodia, 2 for the visa processing fee on the Laotian side, and 1 for him). We decided to just go ahead and do it ourselves, but this was a poor decision in retrospect.

The people doing it alone without the guide got off to get their passports stamped to leave Cambodia. There we each paid $2 and walked across the border to the visa on arrival application window on the Laotian side. Here we filled out our forms and gave him our passports and a separate photo along with your fee. Mine was $35 and then $2 more for processing at window #1 and then when Ronald went his was the same price! His visa should have been only $30, but the man at the window charged him $5 more for “overtime” which starts at 16:00 and then the extra $2 processing fee. At window #2 we had to pay another $2 to the police to get our passports as another “processing fee” a.k.a. bribe. Anyways, many were annoyed at this and it would have been better to just have the guy do it. A lot less headache and we would have saved $1 each.

When we finally got back on the bus and headed out, we drove for a short while until stopping on the side of the road where some vans were waiting. These were for the people going to the 4,000 Islands while the rest carried on to Pakse or wherever they were going. Here we took our bags and after much confusion, Ronald got in one van and I got in the other, sitting on top of one of our bags. Here everyone had to pay $3 for the boat to Don Det (I think it’s usually $2, so that’s another dollar for their pockets) before getting on to be taken across the river.

On the boat we sat two or three to a bench and left all the bags at the front and headed towards the island guided by the light of a flashlight from a man standing at the bow. Very safe. When we docked we just started walking to find a place to stay and ended up at Mama Tanon for $5 each. There are some for $4 but we thought our own bathroom was worth the extra buck. Most of the places have bathrooms/showers in a separate building and I don’t think anyone has hot water. This is sort of a shock to my system, but it’s pretty hot here so it’s really not too bad. It reminds me of CLH really.

Technical Details
* many of the staircases on the traditional wooden houses on stilts (in Cambodia, I don’t remember about Vietnam) are painted blue. I think this is for Krishna in the Hindu religion for luck, but I’m not sure.
* I have never seen so many bugs/moths around the lights – there are hundreds swarming around each and every fluorescent light
* almost all of the guesthouses are also restaurants and tour operators

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Photos

our van to the bus
packed full with bags in front of the door and in the aisles