Tha Khaek

Well, peace is certainly not what we got once we arrived here - Tha Kheak has a border crossing area into Thailand that was once only by ferry, but now they have built a 'friendship' bridge which makes border crossing much easier! We befriended a German couple (Barbara and Andy) and an American couple (Jordan and Candice) and shared a tuk tuk into the town centre to try find somewhere to off load our bags - easier said than done!! ! We arrived smack bang in the middle of the festival celebrations of the bridge opening and the place was mental! After checking more than 8 guesthouses fully loaded with bags and been told 8 times that they were full we were starting to get a bit anxious as it was getting on for 8pm. We headed out of town to a place the lonely planet said to stay clear off unless as a last resort as it has an eerie feel to it - guess what, it was full - and not eerie in the slightest?! Sadly we had no choice but to get a round of beer lao and discuss our next move. Jordan went hunting for hidden guesthouses, Matt went to the tourist information centre and the rest of us contemplated a night bus, sleeping on the river or just plain refusing to move from the spot we were in until they gave us a bed. Jordan came back - nowhere had rooms but he'd met a Laos guy who was at the bus station when we arrived and offered us his floor to sleep on if we needed it - a last resort perhaps??? We waited for Matt with good news but when he returned head down we knew our last resort was our only option as everywhere was full and the next bus out wasn't until 8.30 the next morning!

The anonymous local lad returned on his scooter after doing a 20km radius check for us and his mates who were also coming that night to stay but to no avail so he packed his mates off to his mother's house and offered us the floor in his scooter shop - up we went into his 'moRtobike' shop and after 2 and a half beer lao each the concrete floor and smell of petrol didn't seem that bad! All six of us bedded down on the floor next to the Laos guy and his girlfriend and got ready for a rough night's sleep. Between cats meowing at our ear, the dogs fighting, the light from the garage shining in our eyes, the trucks passing, the baby crying and the local women preparing breakfast at 4am we probably managed 30mins sleep before we were up at 6 to head back to the bus station to get the hell out of there. We had our first traditional breakfast since we've been here though, rice soup with chicken from the neighbour's street stall right outside the garage which she loaded with chilli and spring onion (so tasty)! We gave the guy and his girlfriend some 'kip' (Loas currancy) for letting us stay and headed promptly for our next bus........to Pakse.