Champa Residence Pakse

Today the only things achieved were a quick run down to the pharmacy to pick up some more Anti-Biotics and organise a bit of a tour around the Bolaven Plateau for tommorrow.<br><br>We managed to get a driver to ourselves for the same price as a day trip with a group normally costs, added advantages were we got to cut out heaps of the rubbish from the trip and decide on the start time. We also booked our tickets out of Pakse on the Infamous Pakse - Vientiane sleeper bus.

... the bus. All going well I should still arrive just before sunset and have a whole evening in Pakse. At a stop in a town along the way, Savannakhet, lots of Lao people started talking to me as we waited outside during the one hour lunch stop. I was leafing through my Lonely Planet and some older guys tried to see, so I showed them the book. They were really interested and we chatted a bit in English and Lao. Then three students (a boy and two girls) started ...

None of us were really ready to leave Vang Vieng but the dates on our visas for China were chasing us and Simon and Mel had 3 weeks to get to the top of Vietnam via Cambodia. After yet another bus journey we arrived in Vientiane for a quick stop on the way to the 4000 islands. We were all surprised by how expensive it was there after getting used to the cheaper places in Laos. We had a good meal and a visit to Budda park which was as Simon would like to say 'quite nice'. We ...

... snoring in to Darren's ear all night!! Darren kept punching him for the snoring to stop, and finally at 4am Darren turned around and had his feet up our end- seemed to do the trick as the guy stopped! Probably a major insult as in Buddhism, pointing feet at something is terrible, but at this stage we were not thinking about religion!<br>Arrived at Pakse at 6am- after 10 hours. spent the whole next day feeling wrecked. Whoever thinks that travelling over night on a bus is great as it saves ...

... types of beans :) We did however buy two bags of coffee beans for our parents to enjoy!<br> <br>Okay our next journey would take us to Tad Fane waterfall, the most impressive in Laos. The Lonely Planet described it as a spectacular sight, as water cascades down the 120 metre verge and the surrounding vegetation was home to the rare hornbill during the wet season. How lucky for us!<br><br>Our driver turned off the highway onto an ...

... a local Lao gentleman.<br>Pakse as a town was nothing to write home about but we were unconcerned, spending most of that day sitting beside the river at our guest house, relaxing and playing cards whilst once again enjoying the invigorating warmth of a south east Asian sun. To our delight, we discovered a Indian restaurant in town and so that night the seven of us ate curry and went over the details of our forthcoming road-trip. The plan ...

... hotel and ordered some BeerLaos and French fries for us to eat and drink while we talked. All three of us get along really well so it was nice to hang out outside of a formal work setting.<br><br> The rest of the week I spent a lot of time at the shelter and stayed an extra day and a half after my boss left because I was going straight to Cambodia. I loved hanging out with the girls and answering all of their questions about English and America. I felt ...

... a veritable life of simplicity. I wasn't so sure. Even she contradicted herself later, once more of the locals got the better of her<br>Seeing she wanted to snap some photos and eager for her attention, several kids, including their mother, crowded round her. Looking remarkably content, I pointed out that Western kids aren't nearly so well behaved.<br>'They're selfish. It makes them want more, and so become more indulgent and discontent.'<br>(I've ...

... a bit argumentative, a bit like my half-English-French cousins. She was also teaching poor Khmer kids English over in Phom Phen, Cambodia, a destination soon to be realized on my itinerary.<br>Once I'd fussed around selecting the best of the bikes left to hire from a nearby woman standing next to a row renting them out, we were off. We passed Buffalo grazing in an enclosed area, took a few pics of a temple in its grounds. The tracks were ...