Savannakhet (1 night)

  We were picked up at 7:30 but a small mini-bus and along with two other English guys taken 5 minutes to the bus station. Here we were told to wait till 8:30 for the bus to leave. It was actually 8:45 by the time we pulled off and even then we only moved about 1 mile to a local school and here we had to wait again till 10am for 2 Vietnamese lads before we could go. By this time I had expected to be nearly at the border but was frustratingly still in Hue. We reached the border at 1:30pm and the Vietnamese side of things was simple. After getting caught in the rain walking the 100m to the Laos side we were robbed by the border official who gave us an appalling exchange rate for paying the $35 visa fee in Vietnamese Dong. Not a great day so far!

  Our first meal in Laos was at a little cafe minutes from the border and not great. Eventually we got going again and finally arrived in Savanakhet to pouring rain at 7pm. Picking out the cheapest guesthouse from the lonely planet we took a tuk-tuk there. For a mere 30,000 KIP ($3.75) we got a private room with a fan. We had no KIP and the ATM was closed in the evenings but we managed to find a pretty good restaurant that let us pay in Dollars. Despite doing nothing all day but lie on a bus, we were shattered and asleep before 10pm.

After quickly arranging a bus ticket to Savannakhet from Vientiane and saying my goodbyes to Natalie, I soon found out that I was overcharged two folds. Locals only had to pay 70,000 kip while I had to pay 140,000 kip ARGHHH.

Not only that, but I was reassured that there would be toilet facilities on the VIP bus, but as I arrived at the bus station and searched for my bus, sure enough it did not have a toilet. I was really paranoid because the last few days, I had been having on and off stomache problems, but I won't get into all the details of that heheh.

On the bus I met 2 Canadian's, Moude and Cedric who were travelling for a total of 8 months. The bus ride was probably the worst bus ride I have ever had, and I'm sure Moude and Cedric also agrees. They kept stopping the bus for toilet breaks like every hour, and by 11:30pm after 3 toilet breaks, "BANG", the tyre popped and the guy next to me gave me a frightened look and thumped his chest a few times. The bus came to a stop, and being typically Lao, they didn't start changing the tyre any time soon.
12:00am, "BANG" a bus in the distance also cops a flat
12:15am, the bus was still on the ground
12:20am, an oncoming bus stops and also listens to the flat tyre (as the French said "The Vietnamese plants the rice, the Cambodians watch the rice grow and the Lao listen to the rice grow")
All in all, they lifted the wrong side of the bus, and only later they realise and so they lift the right side...
12:45am, we're set... not, I thought we were because they were closing all the compartments of the storage units... instead the bus driver jumps into his seat and just cuddles up and sleep, while his partner was outside changing the spare tyre, which wasn't in any good shape.
ONLY after fitting the spare tyre on, they decide that they will need to head back into the nearest town and get a new tyre.... OMG I was like WTF....
It wasn't till about 3:30 that the guy returned with another tyre... MY HEADS STILL ACHING FROM LACK OF SLEEP!

We arrived in Savannakhet and checked in to Saisouk Guesthouse. We had to wait about an hour before the rooms were ready. After a quick shower I set out to find meself a motorbike, whilst Moude and Cedric took a rest.

I managed to rent a motorbike out for $4 for a few hours, and quickly popped into the Dinosaur museum, which wasn't anything too fancy. It was VERY small in fact, and there was nothing much to see.

After a late breakfast I headed out on HW9 for about 15km to seek out That Ing Hang, the most revered that in Savanakhet. The that was located in a Wat compound, and the Wat contained many beautiful gold Buddha's, a great Kodak moment.. SNAP

Well after only a few minutes, I quickly left the temple and did some laps around the nearby Lao villages. It seems that the villagers probably don't get many foreigners touring around there, because everyone just looked at me as I rode around... 5 minutes of fame!

I really shouldn't of dropped off in Savannakhet sigh, there is NOTHING TO SEE OR DO... so I'm heading down to Pakse tomorrow morning. If I took the Pakse bus last night, I'm sure I wouldn't of had to wait in the middle of no where for 4 hours, PLUS I would of had a toilet, PLUS i wouldn't of wasted a whole day.....

Up early to avoid the heat later on.  Found a place for breakfast; the food was ok but the coffee was grim, despite lao coffee being excellent so far. Wandered to a hotel that was in the lonely planet as Emma felt the need for good coffee - it was as bad as the last place, but being Chinese owned it did serve good tea.  We then had a wander along the Mekong river.  Thailand looked very modern and appealing over the water! 

We found Savannakhet to be a very friendly place.  Many children saying 'hello' or 'Sabaidee' as we walked by.  By lunchtime the heat had really kicked in so we sat outside the guesthouse cooling off with a beerlao, watching the comings and goings.  For lunch we ate crisps as the thought of searching for somewhere to eat again wasn't appealing.

In the evening whilst in an internet cafe a buddhist monk came over and asked if he could speak with us.  He had been teaching himself English for the last 2 years and wanted to practice with us.  He was lovely and just how you would expect a monk to be.  We swapped email addresses and he promised to cook us breakfast and give us a tour next time we were in Laos.

Gradually the buses we travel on are getting worse.  Whilst in Vientiane we tried to book seats on a VIP bus to Savannakhet - but nobody seemed to do them.  Instead we got up at 5.30am today and got in a tuk tuk to the bus station.  As we drove into the bus station we were directed out of it and told to stand and wait on the pavement.  Shortly afterwards a bus came and pulled up near to us.  We along with about 20 Lao people boarded the bus.  At the same time were about 6 venders walking up and down the bus selling everything from baguettes to dried buffalo meat.  It was far too early for us and anyway we had our trusty bag of crisps to last the day with!  We eventually set off, and were the only westerners on the bus.  About 40 minutes later we stopped again to let some more vendors on selling things we couldn't even begin to describe.  About 30 minutes after this we had our first toilet stop - next to some bushy trees.  We weren't looking forward to this 8 hour bus journey!  Once we got on our way it wasn't too bad really, having no air con meant it got quite hot and the cheesy Lao pop songs blaring out at full blast weren't great, but we survived.

We arrived in Savannakhet at about 3.00pm, jumped in a tuk tuk and checked into our cheapest accomodation so far.  A room with hot water, air con, fridge and tv for 4 pounds!  Having a wander around town later on we struggled to spot any other westerners.  We thought here would have a  few being one of the main routes into Vietnam but so far we have just seen one guy.