27788 km

PAKSE

Here we are again. 7am, standing on the front of our bus, this time heading for Pakse. As a person who always liked his own space, surrounded by my own stuff, I would never have thought that I can so easily get used to living out of a backpack. I'm loving it! Mariola?! She's a little bit of a different story, but so far she's holding up, some days crankier then others, but she's holding. Anyway... Our Kong Lor to Pakse ride was a bit more adventurous than we have planned. Took almost 12 hours to get the 515 km out of the way and we had to change 3 times. One of the buses was so full that we had to travel in the luggage compartment, but it was actually fun and much easier too, thanks to our new travel buddies acquired in the Kong Lor cave. The other bus was a local bus, which was so full that it was bursting in the seams. Among other passengers there were roosters and chicken too. The important thing is that we've made it to Pakse just in time to find us a guesthouse before they close for the night. If I haven't mentioned that before, Laos stops at 10pm, but it starts very early too! In Pakse we've only had one day, which I think is more than enough to check out the couple of temples, some architecture and the market place near the bridge that takes you through Mekong to a hill side where a large golden Buddha is seated and is a great place for city and river views at sunset. The next three days were spent on a motorbike, first exploring Wat Phou, which is a similar structure as Angkor Wat in Cambodia or My Son in Vietnam, built by Khmer culture, but the oldest of them all. The rest of the motorbike time we have dedicated to Bolaven Plateau and its countless waterfalls, coffee and tea plantations and a brief visit to a few villages off the main road.

One more night in Pakse and we are on a bus again heading for the southernmost part of Laos, 4000 Islands...