Tad Fane Resort Pakse

... town at about 1200, right in the heat of the day. <br><br>As Bec picked up a cold from a Slovenian on the Bus from Chiang Mai to Bangkok and I was also feeling pretty run down we decided to splurge and spend $23 on the next two nights accommodation in Pakse to give us a bit of a chance to recover. The Pakse hotel is pretty nice and has a mad open air restaurant on the 8th floor which is also reasonably priced.<br><br>Tomorrow we need to sort out how to get to Champasak the next day <br>

... chatting a bit, buying foods, looking things up in the guidebooks for Laos and Thailand. In the end the wait was not that long and we were able to get into the bus right when it got there at 10, and get good seats in seperate places on the bus. The silent mutual understanding was that we weren't great friends but could chat to pass time, but now was the time to each get a window seat. <br><br>Chatting with Lao<br>Things started out fine, I was on the shadowy side ...

<br>Night bus to Pakse-AWFUL!!! Arrived at the bus to find double bunk beds all along the right of the bus and singles all up the left, with a giant quad at the back. And yes, we were sharing with 2 random men, who didn't even know each other, at the back!! Bumpiest bed on the bus as above the wheels. hardly slept all night- we vowed we would never go on a night bus again after Sumatra, but thought this would be different-arrgghhh!!!<br>A fat guy slept next to Darren, and he slept brilliantly ...

... ahead. For the rest of the day we wandered around Pakse, I ended visited a lot of internet cafes to try and avoid the sun on my hand which aggravated it (and also to see the Manchester derby by downloading MOTD 2!). Paul's verdict of Pakse, some nice wats, however not worth 36 hours on a bus to see .<br><br>We woke up the next morning to find no one had signed up for the tour ...

... a few guesthouses. We stayed in one overlooking the river and the falls. After chilling out and getting something to eat we decided to visit the main waterfall in the area about 10 K away. We were told it was Awe inspiring, Breathtaking and nerve-wracking.. we thought the views were excellent but the waterfall itself.. hummm ...

... Visibility wasn't the greatest and meant we never really got to see how high we actually were. Well, it is the rainy season after all.<br><br>Around 40 minutes after we left, we pulled off the highway and parked on a drive outside a large house. We got out of the car and could see the plantation through a walkway. Our driver said we could walk through and off we went. Left to our own devices we wandered around and saw a large crop of ...

... would have to wait until there were at least 6 people in order to leave. I was person number two. Not a big deal...I wasn't in a rush. Or so I thought until I waited OVER AN HOUR till we left. Now, again, I wasn't in a rush. I've been traveling for a year now with nowhere to be and nothing to do. And still, I was extremely annoyed by having to wait so long. I've been in plenty of other countries where you have to wait for the bus to fill before you can leave. But I've never had to ...

... to take and realized it had turned into a quagmire, totally unfit for bikes. We were soaked to our bones when we stopped for lunch. I couldn't face another day of noodle soup and went in search of something a little more filling. It had been two days since I had eaten anything substantial and I was beginning to feel weak. Alas, it seemed these people didn't eat anything ...

... help it. We walked to the drop in center, which had a good location near the market. It looks small from the outside but since it has four floors, there is a lot more space to work with. We met their "mother" for the drop in center and then we went to get breakfast at the market. We were all a little cranky because we had not eaten. We all got noodle soup, my boss&#8217; favorite food and woke up a little. <br><br> Later in the afternoon we went to the ...

... at the village eatery. It was very difficult trying to get the message across. She ordered fish, while I had, I think, was chicken with sticky rice. It wasn't very appetizing or filling, so I also ordered the fish. The locals and the 'loving' father ambled around nonchalantly and seemed friendly enough, although this didn't stop, because of the lack of verbal communication, having Anne-Marie sounding off about how "all they understand is money," and about ...