I know you expected to see me in Paksan but I had to change cos I couldnt get transport north from there so I would have had to come here eventually so I came straight through. That makes two 11 hour days on the bus in a row. There was enough noise outside my dingy little room this morning to wake me in time to get the 6am bus. It was not the VIP but a local bus. In front of my seat were about 20 plastic stools so I kicked them out of the way and sat down. The bus left on time but was less than half full and I thought this was unusual. About 15 min later we stopped at another station and the stools came in handy. They were set up in the isle for people to sit on. Anywhere there was room they put a stool. The first hour we spent picking up passengers. The nearly empty bus rapidly filled up.
First pit stop was Tha Khaek, a small town. As usuall the anouncements were in Lao so the white boy does not understand. I thought we were full but the driver and conductor had other ideas. The conductor was climbing over the seats to get the stools moved back to get even more people in. It was a bit of fun for a while but after 11 hours cramed in it was past a joke. For me the ride was a few hours too long, but you get that in a backward country. I have at least 2 more local bus trip to come cos that is the only way to get there.
The trip here was ALL through country roads and only 1 town of any note that we passed through. That is over 15 hours and about 1500km in Laos and I have only been to 2 cities. Some of the scenery was very dramatic, around the kharst mountains, but Im not sure it will show on the pics. Mostly just peaceful farming stuff and country roads.
Its Bun Pi Mai Loa here. That is New year here and it runs for 4 days. I thought I might be luck and miss most of it but no luck. Yesterday was the day when they throw water at everyone. There were a couple of ****** up ********s at the pub ofer the road from my guesthouse who thought they were really great getting in with the locals. I thought they looked like a couple of *****.
Last night I went down by the river for dinner. Boy do you remember what it was like in Borneo? Cos this is exactly the same. there are 'kitchens' set up all along the road and you pick who looks best. They all do the same stuff. Everyone has a gay guy as front of house. Think of the most efeminate asian gay guy and that is how they sound. I had "fly lice wis shickeeeeeen, one moment pleeec pleec sit down" It was pretty good so I will go back there tonight.
This morning I did the usual Lonely planet walk. These are usually pretty good but this one was very disappointing. First stop a bakery...closed, Presidential Palace..OK, French embassy.. boreing, catholic church....boreing , Talat Khua Din...demolished, Talat Sao... still opening up, Tourist info ctr...boreing, You get the picture. At one point I looked down a side road and saw an interesting looking building so I went to investigate. It was a Wat. I dont konw anything about it but you will see a few pics. Patuxsi was impressive. It looks like it is hundreds or years old but it was built in 1962. At the end of the tour I found a couple of wat's so there will be a few pics of them. Because of new year they are all setting up for some celebrations and they have tents and flags everywhere.
I will go back down to the waterfront tonight for dinner and try to get some pics of the place lit up.
Going to Vang Vieng tomorow.