Our shack on the island was very cool looking however, it back up to the neighbours chicken coup something we had failed to notice the night before! So at 6am we woke when the rooster crowed literally next to our heads. Annabelle had been having odd dreams all night because of the malaria tablets and the music on the island bar was blaring past the 11:30pm curfew as it was on an island off the town. We wondered down before going to sleep and it was a massive party scene with beach bonfires and many many drunk sun burnt backpackers fresh off tubing down the river.

As I was up so early I went for a walk along the river and took pictures of the water buffalo and people crossing the many bamboo bridges to work and school. We walked to the air strip bus station and paid 25000k to get on a pick up to Vientienne. One leaves every 20 minutes. People got on an off the bus as it slowly moved through the villages. We had city girls with mobile phones smarter than our own, a lady breast feeding her baby and a farmer with his machete (he did wrap a rag around it!). We balanced on the 12 inch wide planks that were bolted down each side of the bed of the pick up while eating our 10000k breakfast baguettes. When you back started to hurt from the seats you stood out on a platform attached to the back fender. Our bags were on the roof.

The roads are not bad here there are tolls to use the route 13 that runs the length of the country. We passed many long arm tractors with wooden carts behind and the pick up trucks dashboard filled with money as people came and went. There were women walking fully clothed under umbrellas including gloves so they wouldn’t get tanned – I am glad I live in a culture that likes tanning 🙂 Signs saying ‘cars for rant’ and good mannered people don’t litter their country (lots of litter all around the sign!). The road was dusty as usual and we had women when we stopped pushing different food stuff on skewers at us including some very untempting eggs that were black… A man opposite drinks some sweet cough syrup smelling drink that has M150 on it and proceeds to carefully put the cap back on and then throw it out the side of the truck. We passed mostly dry paddocks but now and again there would be a green irrigated rice paddy.

Annabelle is wishing she had a larger bottom for more padding. 3 1/2 hours later we get to Vientienne and transfer to a shared tuk tuk (finally we managed to get on one – instead of being tourists on our own) and paid 5000k to get to the morning market where there were meant to be buses south to Ban Na the village we had organised to stay in. At the morning market in our best loas after walking around in a circle looking for the bus station that had been under our nose we figured out we needed to take a local bus to the south bus station. So 2000k later we piled onto the bus which then proceeded to stop when the guy sitting next to us yelled. He did his transaction through the open window – out went money in came glass panes for his house or something! Can you imagine asking a london bus to stop while you did your business!!

A pick up driver tried to charge us 100,000k to go to the village we got on the pakse bus for 30000k an asked to be let out at the 80 km marker. The whole back of the bus and the top was full of boxes and the aisle full of metal rebar and wiring! We treated ourselves to ice creams and I bought a Loa phrase book the guy wanted $4 I gave him $2 Annabelle made fun of me buying it. We had done OK without one up till now. The book has been great especially in the village where the women and kids really liked it.

The bus was a video bus showing a karate movie which was just getting exciting when we got off. This bus would stop at a village and the women loaded with food would get on and try to sell their wares and be let off 10km later to catch the bus going north for 10km. A interesting way of making a living. We unloaded and the bus left us in the dust. We started walking the 2km to the village and were left covered in the orange dust by a school bus going back to the village. There was probably 20 kids hanging onto the roof all yelling at us sabi dee (hello). It was a hot walk we get on asking for Mr Boothanam the man we had organised the homestay and trek with and got pointed the way. There was a dying chicken that had been run over on the road so I gave it some water and put it in the shade on the grass – someone would pick it up for dinner.