“Our overnight train was comfortable and we got a few hours sleep. We arrived at Ubon at 7.30am expecting to see loads of other western backpackers getting off the train. What a surprise to find there were only 5 of us and only us two English! “
We teamed up with an Austrian fellow to share a taxi to the bus station and then sort out bus tickets to Pakse in Laos. Transport has already changed since the guidebook was published and we were able to catch a bus direct from the new bus station to Pakse.
While we were waiting for our bus we had an interesting breakfast at the coach station. The coach for our 3 hour journey was very comfortable. It included a stop at the Thailand border where we had to get out and have our departure card and passport stamped and then a quick sprint over the border to the immigration office on the Laos side.
More form filling and passport stamping and we had to pay them ‘something extra’ because it was the weekend! We didn’t argue as we had been forewarned about this.
We had no problem in getting good accommodation. Today (Tuesday 30th January) we went by boat, a 14 seater, but only us two and an Austrian couple on it and chugged down the river to Champasak and then by tuk-tuk to the Wat Phou ruins.
We were disappointed with the ruins as they read as if they were a mini Angkor Wat. We have visited the magnificent Angkor Wat in Cambodia on a previous trip and Wat Phou was nothing like it and in a very ruined state. The trip was worthwhile however as there were lots of people around celebrating a lunar festival.
The following day our day trip to the Bolaven Plateau organised by Mr Vong and the Sabaidy 2 Guesthouse in Pakse was excellent. The plateau is approximately 30km out of Pakse and has an average altitude of 600metres.
The day trip included a guided visit to a tea and coffee plantation, a walk to a series of waterfalls and a visit to several highland villages that were untouched by the usual trappings of tourism.
There was one village though that seemed to have no interest in soap or some of the other day to day things we take for granted, but did have a communal Sky dish!
We have booked tickets on a mini bus to travel to the area south of Pakse known as 4000 islands. It is going to be pretty laid back and ‘rustic’ on the islands.
Will have to see how we get on. Don’t think there is much in the way of internet so probably won’t be in touch with family and friends until we get back to Pakse before heading off to Ventiane.
Hoping to do a bit of relaxing and we are going to hire bikes to cycle round the islands as so far we have been pretty busy. It takes a fair bit of time organising transport, money, activities etc! Most of the time we are dealing in at least 3 currencies! At the moment it is dollars, bahts and kips all with widely ranging rates!
Became millionaires overnight as when we exchanged the equivalent of around 110 pounds we came out of the bank with over 2 million kip!! Weather nice and hot in the day but not too hot at night, so comfortable for sleeping.
Food is very good here too although there is not such a wide variety of food available as in Thailand especially fruit and vegetables. A lot of food has to be imported from Thailand.
