SE Asia XXII - Same Same but Different

My journey into southern Laos took me through some extremely relaxed towns. In the midday sun it appeared only mad dogs and Englishmen roamed the streets. The locals were getting drunk in the shade. The towns along the Mekong don't seem to have suffered the bombing that some of the towns towards the Vietnamese border have so a great amount of French architecture has survived. Although it seems to be decandently crumbling and in Pakse, where there is money, development priority is with the ugly cake towers rather than renovating what the colonialists left behind.

The people of Thaket are friendly, not a surprise this is Laos after all, but a big contrast to what you find further south. I don't know if I was being overly sensitive but there was a marked change from how people reacted to you when you got off the bus in Savannakhet, after leaving Thaket. There are two parts to Thaket and the most pleasant is the old town along the banks of the Mekong. This is where the French buildings are and where people are very happy to see you. Thaket is similar to Savannakhet and Pakse a great difference is how easy it is to get into the surrounding countryside. I hired a bike and went off for the day to visit some nearby caves. The scenery is beautiful. There are weird rock formations jutting out of the landscape. The main reason to come out here is to visit the caves inside them. The first cave I visited was Tham Xieng Lap and I somewhat inadvertantly hired a small child to be my guide. We climbed our way across the river in the cave and made our way around. I was making slow progress on my rabbit eared bike but was still getting along pretty well when I was heading down a dirt track to the Buddha Cave (it is full of Buddhas). At which point a big pickup truck pulled up next to me and the driver offered me a lift. I chucked my bike in the back and got in. It turned out the driver was Thai, although I wasn't sure if he had been born in Laos and now lived in Thailand. In actual fact I couldn't really work out why he was there at all. He was a small chubby version of the King. His English wasn't the best and my Thai is limited, especially without a phrasebook. The conversation lasted a couple of minutes and then we arrived at the cave. I paid for parking and we walked into the cave. It isn't the most impressive cave you have ever seen but the atmosphere was good with lots of worshippers. I thought I would say my goodbyes to my Thai driver but he said he would drive me back (or at least thats what I understood). We got back to the main road and I went to get out but it turned out he wanted to visit some caves aswell. We managed to find Elephant cave, which is really worth the effort. Apparently there used to be an evil head in the cave so the villagers blew it up and what was left was the elephant. I didn't see the elephant until I looked at my pictures afterwards, I was taken aback by the rock formations and one of the locals 'playing' the hollow rocks like a xylophone. The locals had also built a set of very dodgy ladders up to the cave. After this I thought I would again bid farewell to my Thai companion. Instead he bought me lunch. I finally understood that he was a businessman from Bangkok in Thakek for the day sorting out a building contract. I got the distinct impression that he was bored and driving me around provided some entertainment. He dropped me back in town. I cycled down to Wat Pha That Si Khotabong. A holy site for Laos but not anything spectacular.


Thaket sits on the Mekong and is 6 hours southwest of Vientaine by bus. The road there is the straightest I had come across in Laos (all the roads along the Mekong are long and straight). The bus station is 6kms north of the town. I stayed at Thaket Lodge which is handerly only 3kms from the bus station but 3kms from the town centre on the Mekong. It is in a new busy charmless part of town. Travel Lodge appears to have fallen into the classic Lonely Planet trap. Once recommended as the best place to stay in town it lives on the guaranteed customers coming its way and lets itself fall to rack and ruin. I had a dorm bed for 25,000 Kip, which was fine although whether the bed linen was changed between users is open to question. The shared bathrooms were falling apart and the staff couldn't keep up with the number of guests. The main reason to stay there is that it is the only independent traveller friendly place in town (and there aren't many backpakcer styled places to stay in Laos in general). It is renowned for the Lodge Book where travellers write about their experiences travelling in the surrounding countryside. It is a great source of information, and you don't have to stay there to have a read of it. It is also the only place to hire a bike, a fact I discovered after walking around town for an hour trying to find somewhere cheaper. They charge 25,000 Kip for rabbit eared bikes, twice as much as anywhere else in Laos that I encountered.

The journey to Savannakhet from Thaket was another experience. We left on time only to drive at walking pace for twenty minutes, at which point the bus turned round and picked up a full bus load of passengers from what appeared to be a bus that had broken down. Needless to say the fact that the bus was already full wasn't a hinderance. The plastic stopols appeared and the new passengers were squeezed in as well as their luggage. At one point we pulled over, and with everyone packed in, the rear engine cover was opened spewing exhaust fumes straight into the bus gasing us. Sitting next to me were some Thais who seemed much impressed by my ability to say Sawadee, so impressed that they took photos of me and had their picture taken with me.


Savannakhert has the largest number of crumbling French buildings in Southern Laos. The town centre has a great deal of character, combined with a typically relaxed southern feel. The strange thing is that the people aren't friendly. A big contrast to Thaket and northern Laos. The jaded reaction to falang doesn't sit with what you would typically expect from a place that seems to have few visitors. Savannakhet doesn't have the easily accesible sights outside of the town that Thaket offers. I tried to visit That Ing Hong outside of town but after pedaling furiously for 20 minutes the bike I hired from the Tourist Information Office wore out my patience and I was sorely tempted to give it the Bijarne Riis treatment. The food is cheap and very good at Au-Rendez-Vous. Just along the road from here (towards the bus station) is the Sundowner bar. It is run by an Australian and his Laos wife. Sundowner had only been open 3 weeks when I was there. As the only customer I felt a touch sorry for them and found myself drinking more Beer Lao than I intended. I also ate at Moonlight Ranch, the food was good though the son of the owner was apparently the Laos incarnation of Damian. He just stood staring at me for twenty minutes. He didn't smile or say sabadee, true signs of devil incarnate in a Lao child. The best place in Savannkhet is the Friendship Shop (near the plaza on Th Si Muang). It is a quiet unassuming place with an art deco exterior. The staff are generally asleep. What makes the Friendship Shop such a great spot are the amazing selection of cakes and pastries that are cheap as chips. They have everything from chocolate brownies to pineapple strussels. I stayed at Savanbanhoo Hotel for 45,000 double ensuite hot shower, which was an uinspiring place.


Pakse is much larger than Thaket and Savannakhet but this does not mean that you are cofnronted with hustle or bustle. It has french buildings but they are few and far between, new development has taken their place. Even so the relaxed atmosphere was attractive especially with the temperatures picking up. The journey to Pakse was an experience even by Laos standards. When I arrived at the bus station at 6.30am I found myself on the most decrepid bus I have seen in Laos. It was rusting to pieces before my eyes. I assumed it couldn't possibly be the bus to Savannakhet so attempted to board the gleaming bus next to it, every Westerner tried to do this. When we left the bus station the bus wasn't full, this was only a brief respite. The benches on either side of the aisle could fit two people side by side, before long there were three or four crammed on to each. The roof was full of passangers worldly belongings and a motorbike. The aisle was packed with bags of rice. The 'never full' Laos bus policy is amazing because even when you think it isn't physically possible to squeeze anyone else in they somehow manage to do so. Laos would not be impressed by the Tardis. We pulled up for lunch and the chicken on a stick women attacked. If you didn't want a chicken stuck up your nose then you had to hold your window down. Once we left the bus station I discovered the only thing keeping my window in place was my weight and when I leaned forward it duely fell on top of me which everyone on the bus found hilarious. We finally arrived at the northern Pakse bus station and piled into a tuk-tuk for the journey into town for 10,000 Kip each. Although this may be a scam depending which bus you are on. I met a Norwegian couple in Pakse who said they stayed on their bus and it then drove them into the centre of town.

We had dificulty finding accommodation in Pakse so I shared a room one of the guys from the bus. We got a triple room at the Great Wall Hotel (next to Larkham Hotel) for $13 with hot ensuite and cable TV. It was the nicest room I have stayed in in Laos. The second time I stayed at Nin Nao for 30,000 Kip for a cold ensuite which was probably the worst place I stayed in Laos, although apart from the smell of rotting rubbish outside it was OK.

I did a day trip from Pakse to Wat Phu Champasak. with some people I met on the bus to Pakse. We hired a minibus and driver for $45 (414,000 Kip) between the four of us, which worked out cheaper than going on an official tour. Wat Phu is about an hour south of Pakse depending on the Mekong ferry crossing. The ferries are 3 boats lashed together with planks of wood on top. It is amazing how heavy a load they can carry, there were four or five cars on each one and even trucks were waiting their turn to cross. The ferries sedately cross the Mekong from Champasak to Ban Muang. Wat Phu is an ancient Khmer religious complex strecthing 1400metres up the lower slopes of Phu Pasak mountain range. The temple was originally built in the 5th Century and has been modified over the years since. It is an impressive sight especially once you have climbed to the top and look out over the complex spread below you. We stopped for lunch at Souchita Restaurant overlooking the Mekong, opposite one of the former residences of the Champasak Royal Family. Chamapsak itself is a sleepy little place stretching along the Mekong.

Tat Lo is a small village on the edge of the Bolaven Plateau. It is on the Se Don River. There are three waterfalls nearby, by far the most impressive is the one that is furthest away (10kms). I had intended to hire a bike to get there but it turns out that nobobdy has bikes in Tat Lo even though they have signs to the contrary. It only took an hour and a half to walk to Tat Suong and it is well worth it. A path leads down from the nearest village and brings you out above the falls. When I was there there was very little water and most of what was going over was being blown back up in a cloud of spray. On the opposite side to the village is a goat track that leads to a very dubious set of homemade ladders leading down the cliff face through the forest. At the bottom of these ladders is an even less appealing goat track that follows the rock face and brings you out underneath the overhang of the waterfall. The view is spectacular. I made my way back to the ladders through the piles of dead leaves, and considered the steep descent down or going back the way I came. At which point a rather large green snake rustled from one set of leaves to another and I decided that going back might be the smarter move. I went up quicker then I came down.

I had originally intended to spend a few days in Tat Lo. However the reaction I received when I walked into the village made me feel uncomfortable. Everyone turned away and didn't make eye contact. An unusual reaction in Laos and one that made me wonder whether the locals appreciated the few tourists they were already receiving. When I walked to Tat Suong I went through a couple of small villages and found the people there to be much friendlier. I stayed at Siphaseuth Guesthouse right on the river. I paid 60,000 Kip for a double ensuite with hot shower (there wasn't a sink, though there were taps).

When I returned to Pakse from Tat Lo I arrived at the southern bus terminal and got really irritated by the tuk-tuk drivers hassling me. I decided to walk the 8kms into town. I did it without a problem. My victory over the tuk-tuk drivers didn't achieve a great deal other than confirming that falang are weird. I had tuk-tuks pulling up next to me every 5 minutes or so trying to get me on board.