Southern Laos and Onwards

As I am writing this we are pretty far south in Laos, not far from the border with Cambodia. We left Vientiane Friday the 20th and made our way down through Savannakhet, Pakse and Champassak, mostly by bus but also by boat.

Bus travel in Laos is not a fun experience by any stretch of the imagination. If you are not bounding up and down and getting sick through the mountainous north, its careening down a narrow highway, stopping regularly to pick up more passengers and more cargo until there really is no more space and tires start exploding due to the weight.

On our trip from Savannakhet to Pakse the bus stopped for LITERALLY half the time it took us to get there. Which was six hours where it could have easily been three. Many of these stops seemed to be without reason.

God knows, patience is not my strong point, but what does one do? Plug in the i-Pod and try to be ignorant to the circus happening around you.

The south of Laos contrasts sharply with the north. I’m guessing that a lot of it has to do with more Chinese and Vietnamese influences as well as the fact that there are more lowland Laos in these parts than hill tribe peoples like in the north. There is definitely a more nationalistic feel with Laos and Vietnamese or Communist flags hanging outside of most houses and shops.

Due to an until recent lack of decent roads there are also less tourists coming through these parts and so it lacks the more pleasant and atmospheric restaurants of places like Vientiane and Luang Phabang, or even the tacky backpacker oriented places like in Vang Vieng.

Savannakhet especially has a lot of potential. With all its old French-Indochinese shophouses and kitchy sixties and modernist structures, it seems the ideal place for a couple of sweet coffee shops on the town square, riverside restaurants and boutique guesthouses. Sadly it seems that nobody is in any great rush to mine this potential as in Luang Phabang.

I do not want to dismiss this sleepy part of the country, but my love of little creature comforts and a lack of coffee shops does little to entice me to spend days and days hanging around like we did in Luang Phabang.

Currently we are on Don Khong island, one of the numerous islands dotting the 4000 Islands region on the Mekong. Here the river widens up to 14 kilometers and some of the islands, like this one, is big enough to sustain numerous villages complete with wats and rice fields.

Tomorrow we head by minivan to Kratie in northeastern Cambodia. In fact, by the time I get to publish this way may be in either Phnom Penh or Siem Reap.