LOST IN LAOS!! So we left ban lung bright eyed and bushy tailed, with our fifteen dollar all the way to 4000 island BUS ticket. We joined the mini bus which allready had sixteen people on board (it was only a 14 seat bus) then made two more stops to bring the grand total of pasangers to twenty two!! With every one sitting comftably (LOL) we began the three hour trip to stung treng, after ten minutes, we stopped as a child at the front of the bus began a game called "see how many people i can get to puke, by puking on the lady next to me." The first effort was the best as he managed seven other passangers, no matter how many more times he tried, he never beat his previous best.
We were dropped off at stung treng "with plenty of time for lunch," this meant "there is no bus to laos today." This information was kept from us for three hours, with the much used taxi line of "IT'S JUST ROUND THE CORNER." When a car with seven people pulled up and told us this was our lift to laos..."well whos getting out??" "No one there is no bus to laos" oh joy of joys. The driver moved his rear view mirror to look at me (or to see out the back window??) from that point i knew he was going to ditch us and our bags some where along the road. With mental head fully in charge i made plans of how not to get ditched......"when he jumps out to through our bags out the boot, i'll dive in to the front seat and nick his keys" "he wont want to be physical cos i'm a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier" Then it happened, the car slowed, the driver looked in his rear view, the car stopped, he jumped out ran round the back of the car, i went to make my move, then, noticed he was having a wee!! Mental head was then fired as the leader of rob, and we contiued to the cambodianlaos border with no further nervous glances, and a lot less sweating.
At the cambodian border we were charged $1 stamp fee(we were expecting $5, game on) we jumped back in the car and drove to the laos border, where we were charged $2 in ink tax "$1 before four $2 after) shrug the shoulders and watch him pocket our $4.
We were then in lao, the car continued, to the ferry terminal..right..wrong we stopped in a "car park" or dusty streach of no wheresvill, where two motos (mopeds) were waiting for us, ten minutes and one massive sence of humour failure later, we and our rucksacks were on the way to the ferry ...right...wrong, first we had to get a flat tire, ditch me on the side of the road as my bike limped off for repair, enter our hero?? A tuk-tuk sales van filled with moto spares offered to give us a lift, joy, to the tire repair hut, boo, "just take us all the way" i thought, as the sun was now setting and we still had an hour "ferry" ride ahead of us.
The bike was fixed, bags and passangers back on board, for our two riders to turn into carl foggerty and valentino rossi, We lost sight of each other, i was waiting for hev in one place, she waiting for me in another, both thinking "what the bloody hell have you done with...." We finally met on the beach to get told our longtailed boat would be leaving when more passangers turned up, ....or till its that dark you wont know where we've ditched you, and by the time you do, we will have fu#*@d off with you're money!!
So on the wrong island in the dark, we spotted a sign saying "boat trip to don khong" oh how we laughed at the error of the sign, clearly it meant don khone. No wrong island in the dark, bad times.
sorry folks, we have to leave you again now, but we will try for the photos and another up date.
Congrats to duane and amie you make such a lovely couple(bananaman and prego)
Good luck bren, hope you have at least half as much fun as we are and dont forget"i'm not mad or ought, but i'd like to peel you like a banana, but i'm not mad or ought!!"
so peace out yall
the shoe string two xoxo