My first trip to Southern Laos was quite an adventure; for more than one reason, but one memory that sticks out in my mind was the lack of decent transportation. When we crossed the boarder from Thailand into Laos my girlfriend (Ning) asked a random man in Lao "where are the taxis to the main boarder town?" He responded, than she asked again in Lao
"what do they look like?" The man responded with, "the same as in Thailand." Yeah Right Dude! The picture to the right is of us in a taxi. As you can see the interior decoration was obviously not crafted by Martha Stewart. We had scouted out the rest of the cabs and this one was the nicest. However, halfway through the trip the car just stopped in the middle of nowhere. The driver was super nonchalant about the obvious dilemma. He casually got out of the cab and pried open the hood. Meanwhile, I was in the cab kicking myself for picking the wrong dang taxi. 
The driver was taking awhile and I couldn't figure out what he was doing. I finally hopped out of the cab to see him working on his his super ghetto engine. To my surprise, he was giving it CPR, minus the mouth to mouth. Needless to say, I had never seen anyone use this method to revive an engine.Little did I know this was a sign of things to come. Ning and I hadn't done very much research on southern Laos. We knew we wanted to go to the town of Champasak, but we didn't realize
we'd have to cross the Mekong river to get there. We ended up at a ferry dock and to our surprise there wasn't a typical ferry waiting for us; only a wooden raft with an engine attached. I'm happy to report that we made it across the river without sinking, but I have a feeling that others haven't been as lucky.
When on the ferry we got out of the songthaew and stood by the edge just in case we had to abandon ship. This all being said, I really appreciate seeing basic innovations like this ferry, A.K.A wooden raft. Laos is such a poor country, but the people always find a way to invent and innovate with such basic textiles and materials.After our journey to Champasak we headed to Don Khone.
At first I was real happy to see a semi modern looking bus. Well, not really modern, but it looked a tad more modern than most of the other vehicles I'd seen in Laos, plus I had seen it before at the Pakse bus station, (pictured to the right). Next time I'm at this bus station I'm going to inquire about how much a seat on the cow would cost. I've never seen a cow break down!My new found optimism was short lived. When we got on the bus
halfway between Pakse and Don Khone there were a lack of seats on the bus. We were forced to sit on the floor on small stools, which would of been ok, but we were crammed together like sardines, plus the flock of chickens running around behind me singing the "cock-a-doodle-do" really tested my patients. At least we were headed towards our desired destination, until the bus got a flat. Once again we had to wait for some nifty repairs to be made, but at least we were able to get off the bus and stretch our legs.After the long bus journey to the 4000 islands we were faced with a long tail boat ride to Don Khone Island. Note for future adventurers: these long tail boats are not very stable and extremely tipsy. Luckily, when I was bargaining for a good price with one of the boat drivers he poured me a shot of Lao Khao (local Lao whiskey that taste like mouthwash). I hate the stuff, but for some reason I thought it might be nice to calm the nerves. My strategy paid off! I never thought running into barely submerged rocks could be so exciting. For all the adrenaline junkies out there; screw Six Flags! All you have to do is hop into a leak
y old wooden long tail and play bumper boat with rocks in the raging Mehkong river. Note to self: the Lao Khao is a necessity. The reason being, it helps block out the fact that if our boat would of capsized we'd have been goners. I forgot to mention the huge waterfalls about 500 yards down river. I know people have survived jumping off Niagara falls in a barrel, but I wasn't willing to test my luck. The only comforting thing was every time the driver hit a rock he didn't think too much of it. I figured river rock bumper boat was an everyday occurrence in Southern Laos.We finally made it to relaxing Don Khone unscathed. There were no cars on the island. The only transportation available was a bicycle. After all, what kind of trouble could we get ourselves into with a bicycle. Well, you're looking at it.
We took a trail that was a little more work than we bargained for and of course I was the one that convinced Ning that the trail would be easy to travel. It was the road school children took to school every morning, how rugged could it be?When factoring in the bikes we rented were styled after bikes in the 1970's and as heavy as block of lead; trying to carry the things over the train tracks/bridges wasn't easy. I didn't get a picture of it, but eventually we came to a spot where we had to carry the bikes over a thin bamboo stick that formed a bridge. I wanted to try, but my Ning didn't have faith so we paid a buffalo herder a dollar to help us. Best damn money I've ever spent!
Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of that or our next experience, but the next experience involved a songthaew, which are basically pickup trucks that have seats welded into the pickup bed. They also weld a platform on the very back for people to stand on. Our driver decided to load about a ton of dead catfish onto the back of the songthaew. Guess what happened? Snap! Once again we were waiting on the side of the road. This time wafting in the smell of dead fish in the scorching heat. Watching our driver try to fix his overused songthaew was comical until I had to get in the front cabin with him. I only have one word to describe the next 2 hours: Stankonia!
Finally the last piece of straw on the haystack! For our last day in Laos we decided to rent a motorbike and take it out into the country side. About 10 miles into the journey we got a flat. Grrrrr!
Once again we were out in the middle of nowhere with a flat. It was ironic, because over the past 5 days all we had seen were little tire changing stalls along the roads. Fittingly, where we were there were none. We had no choice, but to walk the bike with a flat for about 1/2 a mile in the blazing April heat. Luckily some guy had a makeshift mechanic shop in his front yard. Like I said before, that experience was the last straw.The next day I paid quite a bit extra to get a VIP bus back into Thailand. It didn't have any problems, although the driver had a few. Apparently, adjusting from driving on the right side in Laos to the left side in Thailand can be a little confusing.
Looking back on everything that happened I'm
glad I got to experience Lao transportation at it's finest. Before this trip I never appreciated basic modes of transportation when traveling. I always expected places to have adequate transportation. However, in southern Laos good transportation is truly a luxury. If you ever go to Southern Laos and have a good experience with a mode a transportation make sure to think of me and most of all, be appreciative! Stay tuned for a link to Eric Haeg's transportation story in Laos.
