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06.20.2005 -- KOH TAO - THAILAND --
Thailand: Run Around and Wheeling Around, a First and Last Resort...
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We realize that with the recent sporadic journal entries, it appears that we may be "getting lost" in our adventures. Actually, that is exactly what is happening! We left you in Luang Prabang, Laos. We are now in Koh Tao, Thailand - we have quite a bit to update!
We loved northern Laos and decided to see what the southern part of the country had in store. We stopped in Vientiane on our way to Pakse and did not care for it much. It is a small and not so clean city. As soon as we found out that we could get on a night bus that evening, we backed out of our hotel - after paying a fee of course - and headed south. Our next stop was Don Khon in the Si Phon Don (4,000 Islands) area.
The adventure started with an unfortunate run-around in Pakse - this is the hub to go further south. When we arrived in Pakse, a pushy (or on our better days, a very entrepreneurial) tuk-tuk driver boarded our overnight bus from Vientiane and inhibited all from getting off the bus. A tuk tuk is a 3 wheel open air taxi by the way. We did not hire him out of sheer principle ... but only after he "chased" us around the bus and we told him to please go away. The driver we did hire took us "sort of" where we wanted to go. However, he wanted to drop us on the side of the road to catch the next bus coming along. We had asked him to take us to the south bus station and after much insistence, he finally took us. While he may have trying to do us a favor, we didn't want to chance it.
The bus we took to the 4 thousand Islands was an open air bus or songthaew. They are the local way of getting around. They are cheap and they pack em full. More on that later. The Island we stayed on was Don Khon. We stayed in a bungalow for a buck fifty. Our food bill was much higher than our room bill. We spent our days tooling around on bikes, lazing about, playing cribbage and hanging out in hammocks. There was a pretty nice water fall there which we did get a look at. All this was fantastic and highly recommended if you don't mind the ride back... very memorable.
To get back to Pakse, we took another songthaew. We boarded at 8:00 a.m. and then we were told it would leave at 9:00. We actually left around 11:30 (conservatively). Imagine this - a small open air delivery truck with a roof and benches. In the center, between the two rows of smushed people, are huge baskets of fish on ice. The baskets are approximately 3 feet in diameter and 3 feet high. On top of some of the baskets are smaller baskets also filled with fish on ice. On top of other baskets are people. On top of the roof are about 20 backpacks and another dozen baskets of smelly fish on melting ice. To make it complete, is a 4 foot in diameter basket of live chickens. Throw a few people on the roof, 5 or 6 in the cab and around 30 in the bed and folks your have yourself a Laos bus ride. No VIP bus for us... when in Paris? During the 4 hour ride, the ice started melting. You can figure out the rest.
After arriving in Pakse, we headed for a resort called Tadfane. It is truly a resort by the way. We decided to pamper ourselves a little. Since it was off season, we paid $16 rather than $35 for our room and we were the only people there. We stayed in a spacious bungalow with a queen and a twin bed. We had 24 hour electricity, hot water and needed no fan or a/c because the resort was about the same elevation as Denver making it cool there. Our view included a 100 meter waterfall across a gorge from our bungalow. It was absolutely beautiful. We did a one day trek up to a Bolaven Plateau. By the way, what we might call hiking is called trekking everywhere we have been so far. The Plateau was what remained from lava flows probably a million years ago - pretty cool landscape. It is where all the villages come together once a year for a big festival/party/religious ceremonies. Oh and the Laos people are heavily into coffee. They might not drink it, but they have plantations galore in this area. Starbucks probably has a bit of investment here. Neither of us had seen a coffee tree before.
Oh and we are officially engaged now... Todd finally had the huevos to ask after being pestered into submission by Maggie and her family. Just kidding of course...
-- Todd & Maggie
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