Saturday 19 Apr 2003
Pakse, Laos
Another day of driving
After the most amazing 1 dollar breakfast Ive had in a while (delicious omellete in a massive baguette covered with Thai chilli and a side-order of sticky rice, and green tea!) I got on another local bus this morning to make my way down to Pakse (a stop-off point before heading to Wat Phu Champasak and heading south to Si Phan Don).
Highlight of the day was when the bus paused at one toilet stop and a girl thrust a stick full of impaled fried beetles into my face "You want buy? You want buy?? Yum Yum?". If this was Bangkok again I probably would have gone for it, but on the cramped bus I wasnt in the mood! Thankfully the Lao people are far less persistent than their Vietnam counterparts so when you say "No" they go away (in Vietnam they start going on with "But why??..." or "I need money for school"... which is probably true but no should mean no!!!)
After one day Im used to the buses and theyre great cheap ways of getting around in Laos, plus you get to mingle with the locals (I was put off by the excessively hot, dirty and packed buses in Vietnam so I didnt bother there.) It only cost me 2 bucks to travel 5 hours to Pakse.
Tommorrow Im thinking of renting a moto and driving off to Wat Phu Champasak... also this net cafe has a cd-drive so I might try to upload more pictures again (I have 267 pics in total ready to upload!)