So. Downriver by boat to Champasak - friendly little place, but not much there besides restaurants and guesthouses - not that it seemed to have many tourists to meet the demand. Met a Laoatian/Cambodian/Swiss guy called Michele, who was working for the Red Cross, checking out hospitals in the region on dirtbike. Which incidentally is in my mind as a perfect holiday, to go travelling on the dirttracks all around Laos - once I learn to ride, and maybe get the hang of a bit of bike maintenance. Meanwhile, he gave me a lift out to the temples. They're from the 6th century, but with stonework that looks as intricate as victorian around the windows. Not what you'd call well maintained, just stuff lying all over the place; the only maintenance effort that was visible was a herd of cattle grazing the weeds that were growing over everything.
On further south to Don Khong next day, 6 hours on local boat - lovely rural tropical island - and met a girl who'd been doing the same subjects with me in UCC but whom I don't think I ever met before. Anyway, she was on for trying the reputed border crossing with Laos in the south, so went with her to Don Det, further south. Where Michele and Marianne (my former Danish travelling companion) both were. It's a small travelling community. Don Det is even smaller - 4 km long at most - and lovely, a wonderfully chilled out kindof place. Not much to do there. You can walk through the paddy fields to the waterfall - which is more like very big, very rough rapids. Or admire the remaining steam engine from the turn of the century when the French were railroading the place (such days of easy transport have long since vanished into the jungle). Or - like me - just lie on your hammock outside your hut by the river for long stretches, reading all the crappy novels others left behind (I'm now getting sick of thrillers and long for something more meaty again). And go for dinner and drinks with everyone in the evenings. But I got restless after a couple of days, and Michele - who'd promised to give me a hand sorting out my Cambodian visa - disappeared abruptly, so I decided to do the roundabout route via Vietnam.
So, up at 4.30 am to shower and pack in darkness, my torch having died and there being no shops for batteries on the island. (No shops, full stop). Boat across river at 5.30am - but engine failure meant we were late for the bus - which was also late, so on for another 4 hours north to Pakse again, huddled on top of seriously stinking fish buckets on a rough road. The nausea induced from that wasn't helped by the kids on the side of the road selling snacks of beetles and bugs on kebab sticks. Transfer across Pakse - for such small nothing place, it manages to have 3 bus stations a long way from each other, and we saw them all before catching the bus north to Savannakhet. Paused for a few hours to check the web (first chance in days; no comms down south) and see if the world was about to explode (it wasn't), and finally got the 10pm bus to Hue, Vietnam. It was horrible. No leg room and packed solid, with packages blocking up what leg space there was. Again, they ensured the worst of both worlds by turning off the lights immediately (so you can't read) and turning on the bad-music loud radio (so you can't sleep). And I had the usual irritating bloke - behind me rather than next to me for a change; he wanted the window open blowing straight onto my neck and freezing me; I wanted it shut. So we alternated inamicably - he'd open, after a few minutes I'd shut, after a few minutes he'd open... it kept on till the first stop at midnight, when I was able to get to my bag and get my sarong to use as a windbreak. Okay, I thought, and settled down for sleep. Then the road got bad. Sometimes it rattled the bus like a drill. Sometimes it lurched it like an amusement ride. Sometimes it got bogged and the wheels shrilled until we could lurch forward again. What ever it did, you couldn't sleep. Finally, the Lao-Vietnam border at 7am, which took 2 hours to cross with passport checks and baggage checks the like of which I've never seen. And then just another 7 hours on a relatively easy road through the DMZ (demilitarised zone, bombed silly by both sides in the war. There's not a tree older than 20 in the region - and most far younger, thanks to the chemicals they used which took decades to wash away). And Hallelujiah! Hue!
It's a nice place; even after 30 hours bad travelling you can see that. I opted for luxury for a change; I'm in a gorgeous little colonial style hotel, with a massive double room, balcony, hot shower, even a cable TV! The bliss, after a month of dirty hard beds, with cold dark showers a long walk away, is wonderful. $10 a night - 10 times more than I've been paying - and 100 times better.
Don't get me wrong. I loved Laos; it's my favourite of all the countries so far; the people are just the best; totally friendly and trustworthy; the country is beautiful. But sometimes it's nice to get back to places aimed more towards western tourists' luxuries...
So far, I've checked out the Citadel - 1800s Chinese-style building; massive fortifications 5x5km around, 30m wide and 10m high, guarded by the wondrously-named Five Phoenix Watchtower; inside which is the Imperial city - another set of walls and buildings - inside which is the Forbidden Purple City which was bombed to hell and has almost nothing left but overgrown fields and the Palace of Harmonious Light. Also boated down the Perfume river to see some of the former emporers' mausoleums - massive constructions, taking decades to build, with sculpted hills and lakes and temples abounding, each in its own style. And treated myself to a haircut, which turned into a manicure, pedicure, scalp and face massage for 4 quid. It was lovely, but the style of the cut is not one I'll bring back to London - she sculpted it into a weird eagle's wings kind of thing, which I've managed to tame into a more basic monk style - they gave me a bit of a look when I walked past after adjusting it.
Anyway, a tour to the DMZ tomorrow, and after that, down south somewhere, planning to eventually get to Cambodia.