Pakxe to Champasak

Kow jee and coffee……..In general rice and noodle is the staple food but in Laos you will find ‘kow jee’ local bread which will be familiar, more generally known as a baguette. These can appear on your breakfast table with butter and jam but are regularly eaten with meat, salad, sauces and spice filling. Today it was the latter served with herbal tea and Laotian filtered coffee. If you like strong coffee you’re in the right place.
Beyond civilization……..Breakfast time also provided an opportunity to gather information needed to further travel plans. From here it was decided to head for Champasak, the former provincial capital. I had in my head visions of Luang Prabang and Luang Namtha in the north. Those visions soon disappeared! I headed for the new market area where I was told I could get a minivan to Champasak. Sure there were minivans there but no passengers. What to do? Well in Laos there is no shortage of persons prepared to take you in hand! So together with all kinds of provisions, cases of beer, bags of rice, kow jee, vegetables, fruits, even steel reinforcing bars used in construction the numerous ‘backsides’ made their way out of Pakxe. Now back across the Japanese bridge, turn left and follow the Mekong this time southwards along the west bank. After a journey that didn’t seem that long; really did I have more than ‘forty winks’ the battered old truck turned off the main road into a village for more drop-offs. It was soon made clear to me that I was one of the drop-offs! I have in my lifetime had itchy feet, a spirit of adventure but now here I am standing in a hot and dusty street in the middle of nowhere thinking ‘I’m plum crazy’.
Ghosts of the past!......Soon a small shadowy figure appeared realising I need a place to stay. I am taken down a corridor skirted by accumulated debris of several generations and presented with options. I look around then stand on the terrace gazing across the mighty Mekong as if inviting the ghosts of the past to return and breath new life into this place. I’m not afraid of ghosts but I stop short of dusting down cobwebs. A Beer Lao later a samlor comes to my rescue. 300 metres back down the road a better maintained row of bungalows takes my interest. Priced from 200-600 baht I enquire about the top of the range. I bargain down to 1600 baht for 3 nights. A bit over budget, but in reality what price to sit on a veranda looking across the majestic Mekong river. For 35,000 kip (140 baht) a meal with beer can be brought to the veranda. It's nice to see the menu in English too. No internet is available but just a short walk down the road a café offers this facility for 200 kip/1 minute. That would be 60 baht/hour but use of WiFi only is 20 baht/hour.