I’m hot, I’m tired, I’m dusty. My clothes are ruined with red dust, my hair is more tangle than smooth, and my eyes are filled with grit. I’ve spent 6 hours in the back of a pick up truck and I’m staying in a hut with a squat toilet and a shower to whom the word power is alien.
I love travelling and I so don’t want to go home.
I never thought I’d be this girl - I thought it would be flashpacking all the way, but I’ve properly earnt my backpacking stripes now, and I don’t know that I’ll go back.
We’ve just arrived in a small hamlet on the Vietnam road to stay overnight before a trip to a 7km underground river & cave trip tomorrow - it’s been a great day too - we woke at the Elephant Observation Tower this morning, having unfortunately not seen any elephants, but having gone to sleep with a bright yellow moon and the sounds of the jungle all around us - sleeping on the floor, in sleeping bags, under a mosquito net (or more importantly to Ollie, a spider net). We had a trek through the forest this morning, seeing more evidence of elephant activity - those things are vandals when it comes to bamboo, then headed on our ‘2 click’ hike with our backpacks down to the main road to grab a lift to our next destination.
As I stocked up on 7up, Ollie flagged down a passing Songthaew and with the aid of the trusty Lonely Planet map, got us a lift to the next big town. We shared our truck with 4 young trainee Buddhist monks (armed with ipods & the latest mobile phones) and a couple of local ladies. At Paksan, we swopped to a new truck, which was this time a bit of a food delivery truck - we shared the back with some huge bags of rice and sugar, a load of chilis, cigarettes, drinking straws and fish sauce. Delicious. After our own gourmet meal of seaweed flavoured crisps and a plain baguette washed down with a marvellous 2009 vintage 7up, we set off on the next leg of the journey.
I proved to be an object of fascination to two ladies - one of them started stroking my arm - I’m not sure if she was impressed by my whiteness (yes, I am still white after 100 days in the sun) or appalled by my freckles. We also passed some crop burning - with a bit of an inferno raging at the roadside - a tad too close when you’re in an open sided truck. The Lao are like the Khmer - kids waving at you the whole time, but the pace of life here is even slower.
Our final change of truck for the last haul meant sharing with 4 other Westerners. Imagine that - the gall of them, heading to the same place as us, when we’d been purposefully going off the beaten track. After going through some spectacular scenery - jagged limestone cliffs & mountains, we arrived in the village, and the race to grab the guesthouse raved about in the Lonely Planet ensued, with the 2 Australians ahead, swiftly followed by the French, then us lagging behind. To no avail - guesthouse full. After some cunning manoeuvres, we found ourselves in this little place.
What a great day for my 100th
