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Stranded in the middle of nowhere in the Middle of the Night

Savannakhet Travel Blog › entry 41 of 77 › view all entries

My Backpacking Journey through Southeast Asia at the end of 2006 and into 2007. The ups and downs of my trip and the many beautiful places I visited. Trully an Experience of a lifetime!

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World › Asia › Laos › Savannakhet

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Stranded in the middle of nowhere in the Middle of the Night

December 11, 2006

Riding around on a motorbike to That In Hang

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.

Buddhas at That In Hang

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.

Villagers nearby That In Hang

.. 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.

Savannakhet streets

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.....