Are we there yet? Wait, where is "there"?: A Birthday Blessing in Pakse, Laos

Talor: After that “momentous” bike ride in the morning, we killed a few hours then at 2pm, we boarded a boat to Pakse. The plan was to catch a night bus and go straight to Vientiane, the Capital of Laos. The boat ride along the Mekong was very scenic with rustic villages and fishermen on the water, but the motor was deafening. What was supposed to be a 2-hour ride turned into a very long, very hot 4-hour ride, and by the time we a

rrived into Pakse, we could smell ourselves... ugh! We were desperately in need of a bit of luxury so we ditched our plan to go on to Vientiane and checked into the Pakse Hotel. It was exactly what we needed...

Though it was pricey at $25/night, we finally had AC, and it felt like heaven! And for the first time in our travels, we had a shower curtain! Add to that super-fast wi-fi, and a super-big breakfast, and it seemed like the deal of a century. Our one night to get ourselves “cleaned up” turned into three as we enjoyed the luxuries of a city...

For the first time in weeks, we had a variety of foods available to us... Italian, Thai, Vietnamese and Indian food, and restaurants were open past 9:00pm! There were banks with ATMs where we got a better exchange, and markets where we finally found dental floss and sunscreen! Pakse even has a cinema and a brand spanking new bowling center, though it was strangely empty when we walked in.

On my birthday, we took a tour of the Bolaven Plateau famous for waterfalls and coffee/tea farms. On our return to the hotel, we visited Wat Luang where the very friendly monk, King (yes, that's his name), very carefully tied a yellow string on my wrist (monks are not allowed to touch women and vice versa) as a birthday blessing for happiness. But the best part was taking the night “sleeper” bus to Vientiane, which turned out to be real beds with pillows and blankets on the bus! It was the first time in our travels we had been on one, and it was fun! Happy Birthday to me!

Erik: Yes, after Mondulkiri, Don Khon and Champasak, the little city of Pakse was a very welcome slice of the (barely) urban world. Pizza, Indian Food, lasagna – all very mediocre and all welcome. AC! It felt so good that we hardly left the hotel room for the first day – especially as we had wifi in the room! Wow. With T's birthday looming, I racked my brain for something special for her, but the problem was that we didn't know where we'd be...in Pakse? in Vientiane? The Bolaven Plateau tour was the best I (we) could come up with, but we basically put the birthday off a day until we arrived in the capital. The tour of the plateau was a snooze (we spent most of the 8-hour tour in the minivan driving...good choice of a diversion before an 11-hour bus ride!), but the sleeper bus was good fun. We had a great time lying in bed watching the nighttime scenery roll past, and it's the first time I've really slept on a bus without prescription medication. Happy b-day, T!