No rest, we journeyed straight on the next morning towards Ban Khoum Khan, the usual overnight stopping point for the renowned Kong Lo caves. It was a memorable journey! Conscious that buses didn't leave that early, we didn't go to pick up tickets until the morning of travel, and with many miles to cover, we opted for the "VIP" bus (air con, minimal stops, a capacity that can actually be reached) over a local one (none of the above). Normally, we wouldn...

The final leg of our motorbike loop took us over the Bolaven Plateau, which we'd circled around the north side of on days one and two. And what a ride it was! Spoilt by flat, asphalt roads up to this point, we expected no different all the way back to Pakse, and with an early 8am start and under two hundred kilometres to cover, I was thinking we might even be back there for a late lunch. Oh no, not a chance. At the point we turned off the main road to climb up on...

Day two, a long ride, and sufficiently so for us to almost run out of petrol before reaching Attapeu! Despite filling up in the morning, and our two-wheeled machines stretching to a pretty impressive forty-ish kilometres per litre, the limitation of our three litre tanks meant that the tiny, wavering hands on our fuel gauges were flirting with their red zones with over fifty kilometres still to go. We might have made it, who knows, only the unfortunate find out e...

Or maybe "Tat" Lo. One was the waterfall and one was the village, I think. Or I might be completely wrong and it's just one or the other, given that they sound the same in Lao anyway (a softly pronounced end consonant, for any linguists reading). What a terrible start to a blog entry. Sorry, I'll get on with it. Tad or Tat Lo was less than 100km from Pakse, and only took a couple of hours or so to get to. We arrived just after lunch, having also stoppe...

From Don Det, we took a boat then bus up to Pakse, somewhat of a capital of southern Laos, I think, and about four hours further up the Mekong. At this point, and covering about the next ten days of our travels, my blog entries will be short, in accordance with the amount of time we stopped anywhere! With Sara having less than two weeks left, and Matt also keen to press on, we moved quickly. Ironically, very much in contrast with the general pace of Laos! "L...