20th - 22nd September: Pakse
Arrived in Pakse at about 14:00hrs, sorted out a hotel and headed down to the river to arrange a boat down to Wat Phu Ngoi and then onto Champasak.
21st September: What a surprise, I got up late, missed the boat (literally) and had to go to emergency plan B, and hire a moto driver to take me to Champasak.
It was all worth it as Champasak was awesome; Wat Phu (mountain temple) dates back to the 5th century, and was originally built by the Khmer Hindus at the top of a hill by the site of a fresh water spring. The peak of the hill is said to represent Shiva's Phallus.
The temple is stunning, with tree lined steps, offering some shade from the intense heat, and reminded me of Ta Prom at Angkor.
The remote location, small number of visitors it attracts, and its stunning views of the Mekong valley puts this place on a par with Angkor. At the top of the temple site, slightly away from the main site is a carved rock resembling a crocodile (believed to be for human sacrifice), and an elephant stone, as well as a Buddha footprint.
I spent nearly 3 hours wandering around the ruins and had a dodgy indianna jones half an hour, looking for a point of interest marked on the map (The Yoni), which took me off the beaten track into thick ankle high vegetation (snake territory!?) and bloody massive spider’s webs slung from tree to tree across footpaths. After emerging from there, covered in spider’s webs, and still non the wiser for the location of this Yoni, I decided it was time to go after a snake darted out right in front of me and headed for the shade of some fallen rocks. Who cares whether it was poisonous or not, I was gone.
Travelled back to Pakse before jumping in a boat and heading 30 mins downstream to Wat Phu Ngoi. It was quite a climb from the river bank, but the views back out over the Mekong were great.
22nd September: Yesterday I’d arranged to travel down the Mekong to Si Phan Don (4,000 Islands) and so headed down to the jetty to pick up the local transport.
Waited an hour in the blazing sun (at 8 in the morning!) for the boat to finish being loaded with a massive TV, Glass Display Cabinets, Sacks of grain and lots of people (fortunately no livestock!) The journey took about 6 hours, including several stops to pick up other passengers and cargo, including a dismantled tractor!
Getting comfortable was quite a challenge especially as the boat filled up, and despite being dropped off at totally the wrong place on Don Khong, I was glad to get off.
22nd - 25th September: Si Phan Don
Things were made interesting by getting off at a point on Don Khong (in the NW of the island) where no-one spoke any English. Through gestures and pointing at maps I managed to explain that I wanted to go to Muang Khong (on the SE of the island), so the locals very kindly flagged down a guy passing on a motorbike, who, after a quick bit of haggling over a price, took me to Muang Khong.
Checked into a very nice, and cheap, guest house and started planning for my next few days in the area. By early evening several travellers returned from a day trip and gave me handy tips on the best way to get down to Don Det & Don Khon, the river dolphins and the mighty waterfalls (created by the Mekong's sudden drop in elevation before it charges into Cambodia).
23rd September: I'd got up early today but was still undecided what to do today, but by 9 o’clock my mind was made up and a few days on Don Det / Don Khon sounded like a good idea.
I made travel arrangements with one of the locals, packed a few clothes, jumped on the local ferry across the Mekong, and we were soon back on the mainland and heading south to the Khon Phapeng Waterfalls.
The waterfalls were very impressive, and the volume of water rushing down them was deafening and a little bit frightening; if you fell in, you were unlikely to come out in one piece, if at all.
I was miffed that the best vantage point (the viewing platform) was off limits as there was some kind of ministerial event taking place. We hung around a bit but those bureaucrats were in no rush so we had to give up the ghost and move on to Don Khon.
Got a very basic room, but with a great view of the old railway bridge across the Mekong between Don Khon and Don Det.
I met my moto driver’s brother who was going to take me to see the Irrawaddy river dolphins, and after a quick haggle over the price, I was off again heading to the southern tip of Don Khon.
I had to wait around for half an hour, at his house, while he and his father assembled the boat. It seemed so shambolic with chickens running all over the place, a tethered pig squealing it’s head off, dogs lying around everywhere you looked and the kids jumping in and out of the river, all while they drained the boat and fastened the motor on to it; erm, are you sure that thing is safe……………
It was safe enough and I was soon heading over to Cambodia, which is the viewing point for the dolphins, and before long you could see them breaking the surface, some near to the shore and others further out.
I tried taking pictures but distance and timing were against me, so decided it was more rewarding just to watch them breaking the surface over and over and put the camera away.
We headed back to Don Khon, visited the Somphamit Waterfalls before getting dropped back at the guest house.
The guest house was very near to the abandoned rusting train. The train and it's track (or remains of) is the only one in Laos, and was built by the french to transport goods and arms part of the way up the Mekong during the Indochina war, avoiding the Somphamit falls and fast flowing Mekong current. There are the remains of piers, used for the loading and unloading of the shipments, at the southern tip of Don Khon and the northern tip of Don Det.
After having a quick look at the rusting locomotive, I hired a bike and rode to the tip of Don Det, to view the remains of the pier, before returning to watch the sun set from the comfort of my hammock.
There's no electricity on the islands, and very few generators, so after a bit of reading by torch light, I turned in for the night.
24th September: There wasn’t a great deal left to do on the islands, since I'd seen the major attractions, so made arrangements to get back up to Don Khong. We got under way at about 10am, and within half an hour it was teeming with rain.
As the transport was a simple fishing boat with no cover, it was a good job I had my poncho to hand and just had to sit stock still for about an hour while the rain teemed down on us. Bags of fun.
Returned to the same guest house as before (where I’d left some stuff that I hadn’t needed for the trip to Don Det / Don Khon) and found that all the other residents had moved on. Time for me to do the same, so I made arrangements to get the next day's 06:00 local transport back to Pakse.
25th September: Headed across the river at about 05:30 and waited around in a roadside shack for the ‘bus’ to come. The bus was a converted pick up, which is the norm in Laos, and after loading up with several sacks of grain, and a few more passengers, we got underway to Pakse.
25th - 26th September: Pakse
All my fellow passengers were heading to the Markets in Pakse and further afield. I thought it was lack of sleep that kept drawing my attention to a bag that seemed to be moving of its own accord.
The locals noticed I was staring at the bag and laughed at the Falang, before asking the woman who owned the bag to show me what was in there; it was a pangolin, and she also had a big sports bag full of writhing mid-sized monitor lizards.
I tried to establish how much they were worth at the market, which didn’t get me very far as no-one spoke English. I sat there wrestling with my conscience trying to decide whether I’d insult them by trying to buy the pangolin and set it free, but in the end settled on taking no action on the logic that there were hundreds of other vehicles carrying similar cargo.
Upon arriving in Pakse, I enquired about return to flights to Vientiane, which were available but unfortunately this office didn’t take visa card (cue more laughing at the Falang's silly question!) and I didn’t have enough cash, so the 10 hour over night bus beckoned.
I did have enough cash to do a 1 day trip around the Bolaven Plateau, and decided that this would be my last activity in the south.
26th September: The trek around the plateau was ace. Hard work in some places due to the steepness of some of the trails, and keeping a good foothold was paramount. I saw more waterfalls than I can remember, and I can't remember the name of any of them!
It wasn't an ideal day for swimming as the weather was poor and it rained nearly all day. That was a real shame as some of the pools and rivers at the foot of the falls were crystal clear and would have been a great place to take a dip.
The whole trek was made somewhat surreal at one point by myself and the guide (the only ones doing the trek) stood at the top of a waterfall, stripped down to underwear, checking thoroughly for leeches. Enough said on that one!
We got back to Pakse by about 17:00. I got changed, finished my packing, checked out, had some grub and killed time waiting for the night bus to Vientiane.
27th September - 1st October: Vientiane
The driver went like a lunatic and made sleep almost impossible due to the constant, violent jerking motion of the bus. The consolation of having a double seat to myself was taken away when a rather portly Laos guy got on plonked himself right next to me. That was a bit of a squeeze for a few hours, but by 05:00 we were in Vientiane.
I was unable to secure a room at the same place as (twice) before and so found a nice guest house on the river, checked in, and went to sleep.
28th September: I made enquiries at the 'Wildside' office about doing some more treks in the Vientiane area, and with not much happening in the immediate future, it seemed as though I would be heading over to Thailand earlier than anticipated. Following the suggestion to "come back in tomorrow, and speak to the manager" I decided to do just that.
29th September: I was advised that there were no standard treks taking place for a few weeks as there weren't sufficient numbers to run them, however there was this one in conjunction with National Geographic and the Wildlife Conservation Society of Laos to go tracking for tigers and other wildlife in the Nam Ha NBCA (National Biodiversity Conservation Area), which includes rafting along the Nam Fa river (a class 4 white water river).
After much consideration and checking of bank balance, I decided that this trip was a once in a lifetime opportunity and had to be done.
1st October - 3rd October: Vientiane / Luang Prabang / Luang Nam Ta
I had to be in Luang Nam Ta by Friday (3rd October) and thought that travelling up to Luang Prabang today would allow me an overnight stay there, before heading further north the following day to my intended destination.
I couldn't have been more wrong! I set off from Vientiane at 07:30, arriving at Luang Prabang bus station by 16:30; this would have given me enough time to check in, get some food, catch up on some sleep and be refreshed for another long bus trip. I made a quick enquiry at the bus station about the times to Luang Nam Ta and was told "five thirty" that seemed a bit early, was he sure about that? He was very sure, five thirty that evening! That meant less than an hour to the next leg of the journey.
The bus arrived on time, which was promising, but wasn't equipped with the basic luxuries that the others had (leg-room, possibility of a double seat). There were no spare seats, and there was no space, as people and cargo were shoved into the middle aisle. Sleep wasn't really an option, and it was bloody cold as well!
2nd October: Luang Nam Ta
We arrived at 04:00, and by then a number of people had already got off, so space became available. I grabbed a double seat and slept on the bus until 06:00, at which point I decided that the Guest Houses would now be open and I could go and claim a bed.
Had a few hours sleep before the guy from the local 'Wildside' office woke me up with further news on the arrangements for getting me to Vieng Phouka, where I'd meet the rest of the guys undertaking the trip.
I spent the rest of the day, wandering around Luang Nam Ta, checked out the museum and tried to find an internet shop with connection. I finally got on line early evening, then had some food, sorted out what I did, and didn't, need to take with me on the expedition and went to bed.
3rd October: Vieng Phouka
I met the Laos guides who would be accompanying us on the trip, and handed over my treasured belongings to another employee of 'Wildside' who was going to take them over to Huay Xai, ready for my arrival there in a weeks time.
The truck was loaded up and we set off towards Vieng Phouka, 4 hours away, to meet the others and for the adventure to begin.......
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