Back and forth...

We hopped on a sleeper bus heading south to Pakse from Vientiene. Pakse was nothing to write home about. A small town that served as a 'jumping off' point. We spent only a couple days there, but the things that we 'jumped off' to were pretty amazing. We took a Sawng-taw about 15km outside of town to two waterfalls, both were spectacular. Tad Fane was this incredibly tall waterfall. We stood at the viewpoint looking down, down, down, into a densly forested gorge. The falls were made up of two rivers flowing out over the side opposite the viewpoint. We were very curious (which, roughly translated, means- 'Sairaa was very curious') so we decided to climb down this winding, slippery path through the jungle to get a better view. We did...get a better view. From the end of the path we could see all the way to the bottom where the waters connected forming another river that flowed along the ravine floor below. Absolutely stunning!!
We continued down the road another 5km to Tad Nyoung. This one was a whole different kind of impressive. A peaceful river flowing through a maze of grassy embankments in a picturesque setting next to a small camping resort complete with a little cafe along the river bank. The peaceful river then dropped of the side of a cliff. The path leading down to the bottom of the falls was showered with water droplets picked up by the air being displaced by the many tons of water now falling of the edge. As the sun peeked out from the clouds it created a rainbow in a complete circle. It was the first time I'd ever seen one like that.
The trip to the falls that day was topped off with a trip to a tea and coffee plantation. We saw the plants and the whole process of how tea is made and we also saw coffee beans on the tree. Pretty cool!

We left Pakse for a small town called Champasak. It was a little town on the other side of a river. It too was a jumping off point for Wat Phu. Yeah, sound it out... only, make sure that you don't pronounce the 'ph' like an 'f'. Try it again. Now you understand why Sairaa and I would laugh everytime we said it. (a side note- in Luang Prabang there was a place called Phu Si - no joke!!) Anyway...this Wat Phu ( literally meaning Mountain Temple) was the site of an ancient temple complex dating back many centuries. Although it was not as impressive as Angkor Wat ( which we will talk about later) it was still pretty amazing. One of the highlights was a huge boulder that had an elephant carved into it.

Getting from Champasak back to the highway was a gong show. We left our guesthouse, got a five minute ride to the ferry (which would take us across the river), then we got a tuk-tuk for the two to three kms to the highway to catch the bus. We told the locals there that we were going to Don Det (Don means Island). They thought we were saying 'Don Dang' so they told us to get on a specific bus that ended up taking us back to where the ferry was...we were really confused but we were told to get on a little boat (very little) and we would be taken to where we needed to go. We decide to just go with it, thinking that the locals knew best. The boat driver took us a few kms up river and started heading toward shore. (We knew that Don Det was at least a couple hours away so we knew something was wrong) We asked the driver where he was taking us. He points at the island in the middle of the river and says 'Don Dang'. Now, it's easy to read this and wonder how the two islands could be confused but when you are hearing the locals speak, they do it quickly and not every letter is pronounced so....it gets.. tricky. Anyway.. we realized what had happened and asked him to take us back to where we had started. We explained the situation to the people around the boat dock, with the help a young man who spoke some english. We were finally on our way back to road where we would have to wait...again... for the bus to Don DET!! Stupid. We wasted almost $10 US dollars going back and for the like this...it doesn't seem like a lot but it is in this country. We finally got on the right bus but it was packed and I had to hang out the back. This was fun, but I got really burnt. As if things couldn't be delayed any more, we drive by another bus...that has a flat tire... We stop. The lady who was collecting money on our bus tells us that we should go on THAT bus because it's heading straight to Don Det. So now we are sitting on the side of the road in the scorching heat waiting for our new bus driver to fix the tire that has blown so we can finally get on our way to Don Det. AAARRGH!!

trust? or trust you not?

Day 81


He was very tall, thin, and dark-skinned with an odd haircut. Short curls in the front and shaved in the back, something like a chelsea without the lengthy bangs. His fly was undone. Or maybe his boardshorts just weren't fastened at the top. Either way, since that area was more eye level to me than his face, I couldn't help but notice. I almost wanted to tell him to do up his fly, in the way a mother would scold her child. I stopped myself and tried to focus on what he was saying...

"Spare a dollar for a poor hitchhiking backpacker?" He asked us.

He looked a little rough, which made his story believable. But I still got a bad vibe from him. I felt like responding with, "Sorry man, but we're poor backpackers too". I didn't say anything. He was mostly fixed on Chris anyway.
Chris hesitated and then reached into his pocket for his wad of bills. "I guess..." he said, unsure of himself. Then he handed the guy a 10,000 LAK bill (which is worth just over a dollar).


Two hours later, at around 7:30pm, we were sitting in the back of a crammed transfer bus on our way to the Vientiane bus station to catch the 'sleeper' bus to Pakse. The truck had stopped outside another guesthouse to shove some additional travelers in the back, and then I spotted him. His tall silhouette emerged from around the street corner.
A Lao man jumped out of his tuk-tuk and followed the guy a few steps until they were standing right outside our bus. I could see the entire interaction take place. Or more acurately, the entire TRANSaction. I knew right away what was happening. The two of them quickly engaged in obvious bartering, then the guy reached into a small pocket on the side of his board shorts and took out some money from a black pouch. He discreetly palmed the folded bills into the tuk-tuk driver's hand while the driver simultaneously deposited a fist-sized package into the guy's money pouch. They parted ways, walking quickly in opposite directions. The tuk-tuk driver\drug dealer glanced my way and we made eye contact for a split second. I quickly looked toward the guy to yell at him "Hey you poor backpacker! Our money went toward those drugs!" But he was gone.



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Travel tip of the day:

Don't give charity to drug users.

Really though, I know it can be hard not to give money to people who appear to need it, but doing so just encourages begging. I think it's better to give food because then at least you're helping the person directly. Often beggers are controlled by a 'beggarmaster' who takes a large cut of the person's earnings...

In the tubing

We did it. We went "In the Tubing" in Vang Vieng, Laos. But we didn't get the t-shirt to prove it. We also didn't get wasted, didn't act like poor role models for all the Lao children working along the river to make money to help feed their families, didn't loose any of our belongings along the way, didn't pollute the river, didn't spend all our money at the multitude of bars along the way, and actually made it back just in time for the 6pm return policy.

We were so hesitant to even go to Vang Vieng, given the reputation that the tubing experience has. You can read my friend Will's blog post on his experience to get an idea of what I'm talking about: http://goodwilljohnson.blogspot.com/2010/06/vang-vien.html

Tubing itself was actually kind of lame. In total it lasted only about 30 minutes, when it's advertised as taking 1 to 2 hours. Maybe this had to do with the fact that it's the rainy season and the current seemed to be quite strong.

Lonely Planet blatently states that it's a stupid idea to go tubing while intoxicated, though we were shocked to notice a sign posted at the Q-Bar that politely asks visitors to 'have a few drinks' before using their rope-swing to enter the river. 

We heard a rumour that someone had died the other day...

On the plus side, the area is very beautiful with huge limestone karsts lining the river.

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Travel tip of the day:

Try to have an awareness of how your actions affect the community that you're visiting. Responsible travel is honorable.