Made it out of the Czech dungeon and on to four thousand islands on the Mekong river bordering Cambodia. The boat ride over was touch-and-go, a tiny fishing boat suitable for one man perhaps, carrying 8 backpackers plus their backpacks against the current across the wet season mass of fast flowing water! We ran in to Aidan, an English chap who we met in Pakse but didn't feature in the previous story because he claimed to be extremely hungover and refused to partake of a beer with us. However, upon arriving in Don Det and realising there was little to do, 'lets have a beer' seemed like a good idea and at $1 a pop it set the theme for the next few days. A Swiss guy called Matteo who we got chatting to having a curry joined our party and we all went on Mr.Mo's kyacking trip to see waterfalls and rare Meking dolphins and have 'The Battle of the Mekong' a fiersome waterfight involving strategic tactics and trying to not capsize!
After many days of hammock dwelling, the unmarked route to Laos lay before us. Having a vague idea of where there was a border crossing, we caught a bus to Attapeu. After 2 hours we were shunted off the tourist bus and had to get the local bus which involved having many boxes around our feet and all down the aisle. At 6:30, (we were supposed to arrive at 5pm) with broken sign/pointing language we had to get off the bus for them to unload. An hour and a half later, wondering if we will have to sleep in the bus station, another bus pulls up and we gather we are to get on. Bit tricky as we had to bring our backpacks on and there were sacks of sugar all down the aisle seat high so a lot of squatting and shuffling was required to get to a seat! Two nights in Attapeu where everything was a struggle. Nobody would sell us a bus ticket, even at the restaurant where the bus stops and has a sign, nobody could speak English and kept pointing to somebody else or waving at us. Similar problems trying to get food, eventually found an old couple who understood noodles and fired up a concoction for us and understood 'Beerlao'. 😄
A lovely Vietnamese woman who had a guesthouse sold us a ticket to Vietnam, not sure where it went but grateful to get a ticket, we showed up at hers at 5:30 am and she gave us breakfast! The border crossing was hectic and reminded us of a badly behaved school lunch queue, so much pushing and queue jumping. Andy had a bit of a showdown with a tiny Asian woman who was very forceful and a sly little yoke pushing through with 10 passports in hand! Managed to get through and get stamped in. Several hours later, everyone gets off the bus at a restaurant so we sit at a table until we are invited to sit at the tiny table the 12 other passengers are at and numerous odd looking dishes are brought forward and everyone starts tucking in. After some sniggering at our chop stick handiness (though we reckon we are quite the masters now) they bring forth two spoons for the foreigners!
The bus stops in Gia Lai and we mention Saigon suspecting the Vietnamese still call it that and are told there is a bus at 6. Some chap in a scooter appears and gives us a ticket, not understanding any of our questions/motioning about what kind of bus it would be or how long the journey took, we paid the 600 grand. Turns out we lucked out on the bus front, every other bus (all going to saigon at 6 it seemed) looked like a glamorous beautiful space machine with double decker bunk seat/beds with private tvs and a table and lovely lights, we looked on from our crappy average run of the mill bus windows-at least we weren't in the one with goats strapped to the roof! A very bumpy brake screechy horn honky journey we got to ho chi mihn city at 7:30am and thanks to a nice security man got the local bus for 5 instead of the 200 dong the taxi wanted! Found a place to stay, had a shower and off to mcdonalds for the best meal we had in ages...its good to be back in civilisation where everyone tries to sell you something and there are Starbucks on every corner! Having my handbag grabbed by a passing biker wasn't so pleasant but as a kind English girl had warned us of this two minutes earlier I was prepared and hung on, nearly falling over and losing sunglasses in the process! Andy now desperate for someone to try it again so he can push them over and have a go at them...I've resorted to just keeping a small amount of money in my pocket but on the hunt for a fetching bum bag!
