Savannaket, Laos

30th September – 1st October 2011 Having arrived, late in the evening, in the small pretty town of Savannaket three hours after leaving Tha Kaek, we got a tuk-tuk straight to Leena Guesthouse which was mentioned as being quiet but friendly and welcoming. There wasn’t a smile in sight when we arrived though, we were shown to a small room with its own bathroom and after a quick shower we headed out in search of dinner. It was quite late by now and most places were shutting up, the meat paste baguette vendors, mentioned in the LP, already gone. We stopped at one restaurant and ordered two “salad beef jam” I was certain that this would be something close to meat paste, how wrong was I, it was stir fried beef with vegetables and rice, still delicious though. We went back and got some rest ready for the next day and a five hour bus trip to Pakse. In the morning we were up nice and early, I managed to fit my yoga matt in between the bed and the wall and practiced some power yoga for the first time since hitting the road, man it felt good. After a quick shower we wandered round the town munching on the meat paste baguettes we had been looking for last night, delicious and super cheap, less than a dollar each. The town sits on the edge of the mighty Mekong and we wandered in that direction passing lots of faded rumbling French stucco mansions, just as it said in the guidebook. It was really peaceful and very beautiful, unfortunately I didn’t take my camera. Oops. We got another tuk-tuk back to the bus station after another meat paste baguette, the meat paste, in case you’re wondering it tastes and looks a lot like pate. We jumped on the next bus to Pakse and settled in for the ride. It was actually really nice to be on a bus after so much time on the back of a scooter. As we travelled further South through the countryside I hung some still wet clothes that hadn’t dried after being washed the previous night, out of the window. Just for reference my t-shirt took about three quarters of an hour, each sock about quarter of an hour, the pants took a little longer because I left them on my lap – I wasn’t about to let my holey undies flap about in the breeze for all to see (Djalma’s weren’t in a much better state either).

From Bolaven Plateau, Laos

At one of the stops vendors came rushing in selling handicrafts and different types of food, others called out below the windows, I bought a skewer of small, slightly stale, sugary doughnuts filled with some kind of dry paste of indeterminate flavour while Djalma got a stick of grotty looking locusts, of course I took about a million photos while trying not vomit, swearing I wouldn’t kiss him until he had brushed his teeth. The lady next to us across the aisle bought two packs of live locusts, we photographed those too. Just in case you’re wondering what locusts taste like, I asked Djalma and he said; ‘they’re meaty and salty and crunchy, so therefore: good’ well it sounded good to me but another look convinced me otherwise. A couple more hours later and with dry clothes and fed bellies we pulled up in Pakse, the base for exploring the Bolaven Plateau.