January 8, 2007 Pakse, Laos – In Transit

January 8, 2007
Pakse, Laos – In Transit

I woke up this morning at 6:30 and puttered around the room for a while. After taking a shower I made my way downstairs and used the internet (with Spizz) for almost an hour. When we were done we went back upstairs, got B, and headed out for breakfast.

Just as yesterday we went to the restaurant next-door to our hotel and waited a long, long time to get our food. We filled our bellies and then returned to our room. Everyone was a little sleepy after breakfast so we decided to lie back down and watch some BoB.

After two episodes I went for a walk around town and decided to cut my hair. I cut almost all of it off (sorry mom and Jackie). Feeling several pounds lighter I returned to the room and began packing my things.

At 15:00 I said goodbye to the boys (who are going to Cambodia) and I set off on my own to the travel agent, to catch a bus to Bangkok. While waiting for my ride to the border (everything was a little late, as always) I met a girl from Holland (named Ilse, just like my cousin) also making the journey to Bangkok. As it turns out, we were the only two making such a trip. The two of us squeezed into the front of a truck and got a ride to the border.

After passing through immigration we got on a song tao and headed for the bus station. We arrived at the bus station at about 16:30. Since our bus was not leaving until 18:00 we had some time to kill. I purchased some snacks and we sat around with some German guys as we waited.

At 17:45 we decided to get onto the bus. As we attempted to board the VIP bus (which we paid for) we were told that we had seats on a different bus. We complained to no avail. The VIP bus was completely full and we were forced to ride on a second-class bus.

As it turns out, it was not that bad. We got on early enough that we got the two seats in the front of the bus (the ones with the most leg room). Even better, the bus was quite empty for the first half of the journey and I had an entire row to myself.

Just before midnight the bus made a dinner stop and everyone got off. I used my dinner coupon to get a scary looking soup and ate only a few bites. When everyone was done eating we piled back into the bus and resumed the journey. I drifted in and out of sleep the rest of the way.