Hello there,

So we arrived in Pakse very early, it was pleasently cool and so we decided that we would just walk around a bit to find a place to stay so that we catch up on the sleep we missed out on the night before. Ty had really hated that bus, i had too, but not as much. We were given fried rice which was nice. Hehe, mine had been hiding a massive chilli, which i unknowingly ate, it gave me the worst hiccups EVER. They were very loud, and the girls on the bed accross from us kept looking at me a little funny. so yea there were a couple of good moments on the bus.

So where was I, oh yea. So we walked around crossing empty road after road. We walked past a few places that were pretty divey and eventually found one near a tree. Luckily we did because it began to bucket down as soon as we went inside.

We slept for ages and woke up with that 'damn i fell asleep during the day' feeling. Starving we went out to find some food. Pakse was a weird town. It had very wide streets, but there were hardly any cars to drive on them and the buildings were very dirty and seemed to be empty. It was a bit of a ghost town. We spent a while looking for some places that sounded good in Lonely Planet but they were not to be. It seemed as if everything had been packed up years ago. We eventually came across a great foe (rice noodle soup) cafe. I think we ate all our meals there!

As there wasn't anything to do in Pakse we decided that the next day we would cross the boarder between Laos and Cambodia and get to Phnom Penh. So we found a travel agency that was reccomended in Lonely Planet and paid for two bus tickets to Phnom Penh.

The bus turned out to be several different minivans, and after crossing the border into Cambodia about 2 hours later than expected, we got in another minivan to Phnom Penh. Well, it was supposed to go to Phnom Penh! After several more hours driving we arrived in Kratie where we were supposed to transfer onto another bus to Phnom Penh. When we arrived in Kratie we were suddenly told "so you stay here for the night ya" to which we replied "Nooooooo no no no". After quite a while of deliberations with the minivan drivers, Mim had managed to get them to pay for our nights accomodation in Kratie and the bus to Phnom Penh the next morning.

A bit annoying but not the end of the world.

We had a pleasant dinner along the banks of the Mekong watching the sunset. During our search for an atm, we were greeted and 'hello'-ed dozens of times by little kids and other cambodians hanging out in their front yards and walking down the street. I don't think they get many travellers in kratie, particularly in the streets we were walking down, as they all looked very suprised and happy to see us. Also, everyone seemed to be wearing pyjamas, quite strange.

Next morning we jumped on the bus t Phnom Penh, arriving 6 hours later in the centre of town, the usual cries of 'tuk-tuk' "cheeep cheeep" yelling out everywhere. One Tuk Tuk driver was so keen to get our business that he even followed us across the road and into a shop before finally giving up!

P.S. Things do get more interesting i promise!