Vientiane to Si Pahn Don to Pakse

[hotnoodle]

I spent this morning sitting in a packed pick-up truck with a dying chicken wrapped around my ankles. A small Lao girl rested her head against my shoulder whilst her mother chain-smoked, shouted things at the other passengers and shoved things down behind my back. Storage space was limited, see. Forty people plus livestock, belongings, clothes in

Comments

[paste]

don dhet looks lovely, even if there isn't much to do. cycling around dirt tracks dodging buffalo sounds like fun!

can i ask why you're flying from laos to cambodia? is it easier to land in cambodia than attempt a border crossing? all these things i don't know about!

[hotnoodle]

I feel like such a piker not doing the land crossing. It's like I'm here in Cambodia and I didn't earn it! I bought a plane ticket because my guidebook said that you couldn't get visa-on-arrival at the border crossing from Laos because it's not an "official" crossing. Doing a land crossing would have meant waiting in Vientiane another three days or so to get the visa. Turns out that you *can* get them on arrival now so long as you've got the US dollars to pay for it (I didn't, and there are no ATMs, only cash advances and exchange in Pakse

[paste]

think i might get some travellers cheques in then, i have a mastercard but it's got some debt on it that'll mean large fees for cash advances. gah, so much stuff to organise and so little time!