Last day in Laos....

Alright gang here we go again. So where we left off was in Phransavon Northern Laos, in the middle of nowhere with no where to stay and no bus until morning. It turned out that there was a guesthouse right beside the guesthouse so we just said whatever and lodged there for the night. Early the next morning the man that owned the guesthouse was banging on our door telling us to get up, and that the bus had arrived. So we hurried out of bed and made our way to the station and got everything loaded on from there. After a long 5hr ride we arrived back to sunny Vang Vieng. The place we were staying at had the most friendly lady and her mother(Mama) runing the place, and we fell in love with them so we chose to meet stavros there. After pulling up in the tuktuk we both yelled "Mama!!" and after double taking who we were she ran over and gave us both a big hug. After that without saying anything she just grabbed a key to a room and passed it to us, no questions asked. It turned out that stav was in town so we set out to go looking for him. We later found him enjoying some sticky rice and we caught up over time spent apart. The next day we geared back up and headed down towards the capital again. We took it pretty east that day and didnt go out much as there was a storm blowing through. The next morning we woke up early to go see the nation monument in Laos that you see on everything, money, beer posters, ect. By 11am we had made our way back across the city and then down to the southern bus station. From there we got on a 4.5hr bus ride to a place called Thaket. Thaket is quickly becoming very famous in central Laos due to a small circuit called "the loop". It is a newly paved road and there are many many sites to see along the way such as caves lakes mountains and more. It was ment to take 3 days but could take up to a week if you wanted. Unfortunately at this point we didnt have 3 days so we were really bummed, but what we ended up doing was just renting a bike and doing the first section and then came back to Thaket. This turned out to be one of my most memorable experiences in Laos. The scenery was absolutely stunning and it just felt so good to be out on the road, in control.. One of our last stops was a stream called "Tha Flang" and when we pulled in there was a young Lao family having a picnic there. At first they kept pretty quiet but after awhile they invited us to sit with them and proceeded to give us fresh water and food. Such beautiful people, something you would never encounter in the west. We sat with them for a number of hours and i sat with the youngest daughter and we both went over a sheet given to me that had many English words with the Lao equivalent beside it, it was really fun and we had many a good laugh. After a number of hours it was time that we head back as we had another bus to catch, but we gave the family many thanks and they sent us off with brite smiles. The next place was Savanekhet, famous for its dried beef. We really only spent 2 days there and there really isnt much to see in the way of tourist sites, but the one that we did check out was a dinosaur museum. Its pretty weird to think of dino's over here but the museum was really cool and the old man that worked there was very happy to show us around, even taking us into the backroom and looking at some of the originals. Next we made our way down to the 4000 islands. This is the southern most part of Laos with Cambodia on all sides. Here the Mekong splits into a delta and thousands of small islands are formed as a result. Life on the islands is more laid back than anywhere in the world, things just get done when they do. The power only works from 11-12pm and then 5-45 - 12am. Also on a normal day down here the temp is at least 35 in the shade, so needless to say there was ALOT of sweating going on. We really didnt do to much on the islands as theres not much to do, but i had a really great time swimming in the river with the locals and really enjoyed the place overall. That brings us to today and i am currently sitting in Pakse southern Laos on the border with Thailand. Tomorrow we make way across the border to Ubon and then from there a terrible 8hr bus ride to Bangkok. Once in Bangkok we will pick up stavros, do a load of shoping and then try to grab some sleep. The next morning we must catch the first bus to Mae Sot, and i am glad to say I will be settling in to the farm for the next month. I really cant wait to get there and relax, unpack my pack and not have to take a bus for a few weeks. Well i must be off but i hope all is well back at home and thanks for the comments.


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