My tuk tuk ride to the airport with the drivers son!
This morning I’m flying to Pakse in the South of Laos with Laos Airlines which I’ve been reliably assured are as safe as anyone else! Fingers crossed!
The airport set up was quite amusing, it was a fair size really but with no facilities once you’ve gone through baggage screening. Everyone was downing their water before going through but when it came to me I asked and they said I could take it through with me. On the other side was just a holding tank so half an hour later when I needed to use the facilities I had to go back through again but this time my water was classed as a dangerous object and wasn’t allowed through – these guys should work at LGW staff security!! ;-)
The flight was pretty good for a small aircraft and we even got fed! What was a little unnerving though was that I was seated right where the wheels came down under the wing and could see the mechanics of it all, what I would have also seen if it happened was the undercarriage failing!! Not sure it was such a great seat after all!
Our plane
There was about 10 or so backpackers that were getting off in Pakse and we all piled into two tuk tuks to take us into town and from there to find somewhere to stay. Pakse was going to be just a brief stop off point before heading further South to Si Phan Don so I thought I wasn’t that worried about where to stay, bad move! I had decided on the cheapest place in the book and just made my way there along with a very tall French guy. The GH was called ‘Sapiedy 2’ and being in the Lonely Planet was clearly suffering from the ‘Lonely Planet Effect’ and subsequently was pretty poor. There was an English couple who had arrived minutes before us and were just looking at the room with two single beds, wisely they decided not to take it and so the French guy suggested we shared and of course split the cost. The cost of the room each was £2.70! You can imagine what it was like, oh well it’s only for one night right?!
There’s not a lot to do in Pakse but I headed down to the river for a wander and came across the English couple again. Lauren and Hadleigh were from Brighton and were now on route to emigrating to Oz so we had plenty to chat about while we collectively decided on our next plan over a few beers. ;-)
After some discussion we decided we were pretty much taking the same route, at least as far as the South of Laos was concerned so on that note we made a plan to visit the nearby Bolaven Plateau in the morning where they grow some great tea and coffee. Now we just needed to negotiate a tailor made trip....which Lauren did soooo much better than Hadleigh and I! ;-)
With regard to the room I had already taken, after chatting to Lauren and Hadleigh I decided that actually I can afford more than I was paying and really didn’t need to be sharing with some strange French guy (ok I’m sure he wasn’t that strange!) so right before dinner I went back and found myself a great little place that wasn’t advertised (so had rooms) and was full of eggs (I’m sure they were the towns suppliers). The result was a very nice clean air-con room all for under £8, bargain!
Flying over the Mekong
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