The creature returns

3/8/12:

After an alarm mishap, we managed to make it down to Don khon. By alarm mishap, I mean we were supposed to be at the ticket place for our bus south at 7:30 but didn't wake up until 7:31. The stars must have been aligned in our favor cause we managed to pack up our crap, brush our teeth, check out and run the 500 meters to our appointed place ... All by about 7:39. Impressive I know :)

Anyway, the bus is supposed to leave by 8:00 but the ticket agent (who also has a restaurant) wants us there at 7:30. So we're there 9 minutes late, no worries. Turns out we could have slept another hour cause the bus didn't actually pick us up until 9:30. A 2 hour journey later we arrived in a tiny riverside town. The bus driver has no clue what to do with us and after a couple phone calls he realizes we're supposed to be on a ferry to Don Khon.

Quick tip: always ensure you accentuate the correct syllable to ensure you're taken to the correct destination. We're currently in the 4000 islands of southern Laos. The 3 main islands here are Don Khong, Don Det and Don Khon. Yea you read that right. So I make sure to really hang on the 'n' in Don Khon.

We finally make it to the ferry which is just a crappy old skinny boat and are taken to Don Det first then Don Khon. There must be atleast 10,000 islands all around us. I can't believe the boats remember which way to go. Our island is fairly large but not as inhabited as Don Det. Apparently it wasn't always like this. Not too long ago neither island had 24 hour electricity. Now it isn't a problem and judging from the river, Don Det seems to have much more in the way of buildings than our island. Suits us just fine. The only problem here so far is the heat. Deadly hot. Sweat is pouring off of us in streams.

We hung out around our hotel for a bit and walked around. There's a bridge connecting Don Khon to Don Det but it's a 20,000 kip fee to cross. As we tried to walk under it a local guy stopped us and demanded 20,000 kip. We both laughed at him and asked if he was joking. We went back and forth for a few minutes and finally just walked away. The Lao police have yet to come find us.

There are a couple water falls around here and some super rare Irrawaddy dolphins in the mekong nearby. So we're going to rent bikes tomorrow and explore the island and maybe see some dolphins.

We had dinner tonight with some new friends staying at our hotel. Super nice ladies from the US and Canada. They're much more travelled than we are so we chatted them up for as much info as we could get out of them. Some of their stories make us want to lock our valuables and money in a safe somewhere.

So after dinner we walk back to our room, open the door and turn on the lights. Then we notice Carolyn's sunglasses on the floor along with a cookie package nearby. On close examination we see a hole in the package and some teeth marks. Teeth marks which could only have come from .... The creature. So we've just spent the last 30 minutes searching for how it could have gotten into our room. Nothing. We can't find a hole large enough for a mosquito much less a flesh eating monster.

So we plan to sleep with our headlamps tonight just incase something decides to attack us.

Pics:
1) ferry to Don Khon.
2) ferry to Don Khon.
3) evidence of the creature.
4) crime scene.
5) Carolyn preparing to take the first creature watch.

Lazy

3/8/12:

This is the view from the front porch of our bungalow on Don Khon. You can just make out the Mekong river past my feet.

Bus stop?

3/8/12:

A typical bus ride for us so far (and just about everyone else we've spoke to) involves this:

- get picked up by a mini bus.
- pick up more people until the bus is completely full.
- drive to a 'bus station' and get forced into another similar bus.
- drive to a other tour agency and deflect repeated attempts at getting you to purchase follow on travel any number of other annoying scams.
- stop at friend of drivers restaurant where sammiches suddenly are impregnated with gold and platinum cause the price for a crappy cheese sammich has inexplicably quadrupled in price.
- get dropped off either in a bus station which is atleast 50 km away from where they said they would drop you off or at another tour agency.

Today we were dropped off at a tour agency and told to go find the ferry which was somewhere down the road. After a couple phone calls the bus driver was nice enough to physically point the way to the ferry and walked down there. What a crazy place this is.

The pic is a typical sight of a tour agency with us trying to figure out where on earth we are and how we're going to get to where we need to go. The guy to the immediate left of Carolyn is on the phone trying to figure our what to do with us. He was actually a really nice guy ... Most drivers stop, push you out and drive away laughing.

Something is really missing

You might have read Michael's post about not having an undercarriage cleaner back in Luang Prabang but that is nothing compared to the surprise I got yesterday. We went on the tour and checked into a new room at the guesthouse when we returned because it was cheaper. We were told only cold water but we didn't care about that. I had been feeling crappy all day long and ended up having the worst night of our trip thus far and this is what I had to work with:

$37 cup of coffee

The alarm goes off this morning and we hear something funny, I wipe the sleep from my eyes and think no this can't be but it is...rain! Not just a drizzle either, it hasn't rain for us in over 30 days. I was suddenly looking forward to today's tour. Michael failed to mention that our adventure yesterday was in blazing heat and we each sweat a few gallons of water.

The reason we didn't book a tour in the first place was because they throw in all this extra stuff that we don't want to see. Today's didn't let us down. Drive to a shack see some tea leaves, buy tea from the "Tea Master", drive to next shack see coffee trees, buy coffee, see waterfall which is 85% covered in thick fog, drive to waterfall number 2 which has a bit of a climb down to the base. Since its a tad wet and Michael is the clumsiest guy around he slips, scrapes his hand, gets mud all over his white bathing suit. *Michael takes a fall about once in every city we've been to, most of the time it's just his pride that is hurt but he's actually in pain and there's some blood. Darn why am I never ready with camera when these funny incidents happen. In Chiang Mai all the side walks are sloped and painted red and white so you can't miss them, or can you? Michael fell numerous times there. In Vang Vieng he fell as we were leaving a cafe one morning and it was so funny the locals across the street were laughing hard and loud. Michael takes a dip in the waterfall to clean up and we move on to a village where they supposedly makes their own coffins and then stores them until they pass. We didn't see any coffins or coffins in the making but we saw a ton of pigs, piglets and kids asking for pens. After the village Michael realized that a whole bottle of water leaked in his dry bag. It must have busted open on the fall, our guide book got a good washing! Long drive to waterfall number 3 and lunch, then off to one last village before heading into town.

It was a nice day and we did get to meet some people but I think yesterday was more of an authentic day. Either way we never did get to the coffee tour, must be some secret code we don't know about. Michael got 3 cups today so I think he'll be just fine.

Michael and his coffee plant
Waterfall number 2
Michael bloodshed (his palm is quite swollen and bruised now)

My $20 cup of coffee

3/6/12:

We arrived in pakse around 0700 this AM. The bus ride wasn't the best but certainly not the worst either. I can probably count on one hand how many times this has happened though: I slept like a champ while Carolyn tossed and turned all night.

Anyway, the bus dropped us off about 15 minutes outside of town which meant we had to take a tuk-tuk or song-tew from there. This actually happens at just about every single bus station in these countries. The tuk-tuk mafia has paid the bus companies to deposit their passengers far enough away to require a tuk-tuk. Ahhh the warm embrace of capitalism! While getting into our song-tew we noticed the parking had more trash than normal and a good portion of it wasn't all that bad. In fact we saw some couches and other luxuries you don't generally see in parking lots everyday. Further down we saw the underlying issue: Seems a huge fire had broken out the night before and destroyed a whole row of buildings. Sad sight to see for sure.

In the city we walked to a couple places and settled on a decent hotel called the Thanong Luang. Got an A/C room with hot water for 110000 kip / night. Not too terrible but maybe we can do better tomorrow. Oh I forgot to mention that this place doesn't have wifi :(. In fact non of the hotels we went to had it. Well not for free anyway.

Earlier we (and by we I mean me, Carolyn doesn't even drink coffee) decided the only reason we were coming here (Pakse) is to take a coffee tour. Apparently just about all Lao coffee is grown near here on the Bolevan Plateau. The organized tours seemed a little pricey and long so after some quick research we figured we could do it ourselves. HA!!!

We haggled with a few song-tew's before finding one who said 30,000 kip to the Southern bus terminal (where local buses leave for Paksong which is where the coffee is). As we get in the driver asks us where we're going an after hearing our answer I guess he decides we don't need to go to the southern bus terminal (which is 8 km away). Instead he takes us about 3km down the road and tells us the bus is there and collects the 30,000 kip. Of course we now find ourselves in a giant parking lot full of messy shops and song-tew's full of people. Seriously there are probably 98 vehicles and hundreds of people here. It's a mad house. We walk around and ask a few people but don't get much of a reply. Finally we find a driver and a woman who both laugh and tell us no one is going to Paksong from there. Great. However they are going to the southern bus terminal and for 20000 kip we can tag along. Sold.

We pull into another large parking area with millions of people, thousands of shops and hundreds of song-tew's. After some haggling we find one going to Paksong for 40000 kip. Best part is they have a rooster in the back!!! Woohoo! We're also the only Gringos in the vehicle as everyone else looks to have done some shopping and is heading home along the way to Paksong.

The drive is nothing special except the random watermelon stand where there are atleast several hundred thousand watermelons. Oh and we did see an awful lot of cows as well.

We arrive in Paksong and honestly have no clue where we're going. The song-tew driver lets is off at a market and then we have to figure the rest on our own. Making our way through town it's clear they don't get many gringos here. Lots of staring, women running and mothers screaming for their children to beware of the white devils. Hehehe, it wasn't that bad but there were a lot of stares. Anyway we find the coffee place which as luck would have it is the only place in town with a sign that says 'Coffee.' I'm oozing anticipation at this point. Fresh coffee, wandering through the fields of that special bean, picking a few, smelling the beans, licking the beans. I feel like I'm about to enter Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. I skip into the shop and shriek how excited I am. Then happily ask to take the coffee tour. Dark clouds appear out of no where, Voldemort peaks his head out of the closet and a huge pig snorts and farts nearby. The lady then lays the hammer down: 'no tour. You have to book it in Pakse.' Pakse, the city we just managed to leave. Deflation. Carolyn looks at me, I look at Carolyn. The only thing left to do is have a fabulous cup of coffee. So that's what I did. I had a great cup of coffee. No scratch that. I had a great shot of coffee. The lady clearly thought I was from Greece or Turkey or something cause she brought me a shotglass instead of a cup. Oh well. So we made our way back to Pakse, riding with some locals who were cutting up some mushrooms and a local guy who was so drunk he fell over in the song-tew (which almost made the trip worth it). So after all was said and done, my 3 ounce shot of coffee cost is $20. But we made some memories to last a lifetime :)

Tomorrow we're going to take a real tour and maybe see some actual coffee being made!!!!!

Pics:
1) the $20 coffee.
2) The Blues.

Dare to dream

3/6/12:

We had a few goals in mind for this trip before we came and have come up with a couple others during our time on the Gringo Trail. Recently I realized that I've had a certain goal in mind for a while now. Hmmmm, goal is too soft a word for this. Dream is a much better description. Yes, I've had a dream for a while now just waiting to be realized.

What is this dream you ask? Well I just don't think you can ever get the full experience of riding in a bus in SE Asia until you ride in one that has locals AND chickens. So my wonderful wife found a truck/bus with a Rooster in it!!!!! Woohoo! Another check in the box on my life list :)

Oh and there were a couple random cows roaming around the 'bus station.' Just an added little bonus!