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Published: July 23rd 2010
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Dear diary,
Our plans to kill Kayla have backfired completely, leaving me fallen over and trapped underneath my motor bike in a giant muddy puddle in the middle of the trail. This is crash number 3... all involving Kayla (she was on the back of my bike but somehow easly jumped off before freaking out and throwing my balance off, I'm beginning to think she was a cat in her past life... not only does she always land on her feet... but she has 9 lives)... but do not worry mother, only the first one involving me. I did not get hurt, only my ego and I will no longer act like the only one of us left that is a complete BAD ASS on a motorcycle seeing as I had not run into a ditch or pothole.. until now. Please note: it is in fact a moped, but I will be referring to it as a motorcycle in all CAPS to make me look more like a savage.
Let me start from the beginning. Instead of travelling north to Hanoi Vietnam from Vientianne straight into Typhoon Conson, we opted to head South in Laos before crossing over into Central Vietnam. Although I'm sure we would have liked to keep to the theme that we are invincible... the whole purpose of going to Hanoi would be to lounge by the ocean with beer in hand. Even though the typhoon was downgraded into a 'measly' tropical storm once it hit Vietnam, the fact that it killed many people in the Philippines and China we did not want some 'bad weather' to ruin our vacation.
And thats when we decided to come to Pakxe. And as soon as we got to Pakxe we thought "Why did we come to Pakxe?" Our ride here was a janky-ass sleeper bus. Our very sarcastic, uninterested, and mockingly asshole-ish of a hotel manager from Vientiane (who I became very fond of because of these exact reason) suggested this to us. It was a super fun trip though, if you enjoy sleeping in a coffin that gives you whiplash. Thank god for the over-the-counter Valium we bought from a pharmacy in an allyway a few hours beforehand. Anyways, we get to Pakxe at 6:30am, walked the street like zombies to find the nearest hostel to nap in seeing as we got 4 hours of sleep. At that point I didn't care if I slept in the street next to the stray dogs and pig heads they were serving at the food stands. Which I might as well have, considering I got a mild case of the bed bugs. Woke up around 10:30am and walked around and explored the town, which took a whole 1 hour. Went across the French bridge which obviously meant we were in France, right? Found some old abandoned buildings to explore and then asked ourselves again... "Why did we come to Pakxe?"
It wasn't all the craps though... Today we rented MOTORCYCLES (cough) and rode to Champasak. Well, first of all we rode toward what we thought was Champasak (thanks, Lonely Planet)... 4 hours later after getting lost, we got to the boat crossing to get over the Mekong into the town. And by boat I mean two wooden platforms with another platform across the 2 of them, tied down to hold them together so there would be enough froom for our MOTORCYCLES. And the engine that moves them across the river? Well, it looks like one of those battery operated face-fans that you can buy at the dollar store attached to a long stick that they drop in the water.
So anyways, to the point. We came to Champasak to go to Wat Phu Champasak (aka Vat Phou). And holy crap, the visit to Pakse was worth the trip for Wat Phu. An archealogical site from the 5th century, it is supposedly the religious capital for the Khmer empire before Angkor Wat in Cambodia (which, stay tuned we will be visiting later in the trip). It is absolutely gorgeous and a must-see if ever in the southern area of Laos. It's not really something you can describe and I feel like I can usually capture pictures to a decent extent, but I feel like my picture were not doing it justice.
Severe sun burns, sore butts from riding MOTORCYCLES for hours, unintentional full body mud baths, and hundreds of almost-run-over cows later. We're alive. Back in Pakse until the morning when we head to Si Phan Don (4,000 islands).
PS. sorry for the blunt writtings, they serve beer in internet cafes here. CHEERS.
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