Pakse Hotel

Lao Road Trip! After relaxing on the river in Vang Vieng, we headed back to Vientiane to meet up with Sid's cousin, who has a minivan and offered to take us on a road trip down to southern Laos. We didn't know that we would also be taking the trip with one of the cousin's friends (who would help drive on the long trip); another friend who wanted to come along for the fun; and also a 3rd guy who wanted to get dropped off in Savanakhet, which was about mid-way to Pakse. The van seats 9 and had ...

Today could of been hellish, but turned out pretty well!

The train rolled in about 3 hours late as is usual with trains in Se Asia, once getting off the train we walked past all the usual touts and fixers and straight to some other people we saw hanging around with backpacks, they were all heading in the same direction and we managed to get 2 seats in a 4WD heading out to the border 1 hour away.

The drive out was pretty easy going and surprisingly no fixers/touts were hanging a...

Today was another day spent doing what we do best in Laos, Relaxing

Pakse is a pretty sedate little town, but when the sun is upon you it is hot hot hot!

We found our way up to Delta Coffee today, I'd almost class it as some of the best coffee I've ever tried, this cafe has it's own plantation about 50 k's away up on the Plateau, they also make some bloody good Italian style food!

Afterwards a leisurely stroll down to the local bus arranger kinda guy sort out our tickets ...

It had to happen eventually, this my friends is a lesson as to why you stick with street vendors

Our ride from the Island to Pakse went very vey smoothly and we were back to our friends in the Pakse hotel in no time, we planned to stay here for a couple of days in the hope that Bec's chest infection would clear up and then we'd move on.

Things are going pretty good, we head back up to a cafe we visited when we were here last and grab a couple of coffees and some Carbonara becaus...

Today is March 17,2009 at noon. I am presently in Pakse, Laos. I have been travelling with my sister since December 25, 2008 to February 26, 2009 at which time my sister returned to Canada and I continued on my own. We started out by having a stopover in Beijing, China and spent a few days there to see the amazing wall of China, the Forbidden City and Tiannamen Square. We then went on to Saigon Vietnam for a few days spending New Years there and then took a trip along the Mekong Delta enroute...

Flew from Vientiene to Paksi. Well worth it as I couldn't see doing the distance by bus!!!! (Flight was approx $130 US- did not check websites, just booked through Laos Airline) I quite enjoyed Paksi and the side trips. First of all everyone that has a budget to spend around 200,000 kip (approx 23-25 US$) for a room should stay at the Pakse Hotel & Restaurant (e-mail: info@paksehotel.com) This is the best hotel and service I have had in Laos at that price range. The staff is incredibly fr...

Just a short note from Paske as there's not much to say about this little provincial capital. We've stopped here as a base for a couple of day trips (to a temple in Champasak and to the Bolaven Plateau).

Paske is about 3 hours in a minibus north of the 4000 islands and we feel like we're getting to know Laos a bit better. It is very relaxed, when we stepped out of the minibus, instead of the usual crowd of moto-drivers bombarding us as we're used to now from Vietnam and Cambodia, the...

For completeness we wanted to tick one final Khmer temple off the list, Champasak is about 40km south of Paske and we had planned on getting a simple tour here, but they were a bit pricey and we are getting more adventurous so we decided to arrange it ourselves.

We booked a minibus with a ferry connection to get us to Champasak town, when we arrived we chartered a tuk-tuk to take us there and back for 60,000Kip ($7 ... my brain isn't working in pounds at the mo!), then afterward we h...

We arrived in Pakse after taking the overnight sleeper bus from Vientiane. The bus ride was pretty nice. We had our own little bunk with a couple of blankets and pillows. Like most bus rides over here the temperature switched between freezing cold and steaming hot, so it was a little difficult to sleep. We arrived in Pakse at around 6:30 am and got a tuk tuk to the city center where we walked to find a hotel. We decided on the Pakse Hotel, which was a little more expensive than we would have ...

After Vientiane we went to Pakse on an overnight bus. We meant to take a picture of it, but of course forgot. It was really a pretty cool bus, each bed fits two people and they were seriously more comfortable than some of the beds we have had in hotels. Despite the comfortable beds it was really hard to sleep because it was really hot. We only stopped one time and it was crazy because two guys almost got left. It made me think about if I got left with all my stuff on the bus, it probably woul...