South East Asia & New Zealand

Last day in Laos. There isn't much on the tourist side of Pakse, just a few hotels and restaurants as essentially tourists just use it to sleep before going to the plateau or further south. I borrowed a hostel bike and cycled over to a temple on the other side of the river. The cycle wasn't too far but got lots of odd looks from the locals, not sure they were used to seeing us this far out on a bike. I stopped on the way and looked around the biggest non-tourist market I have ever been too. The place was huge and split into all different sections and at the back they have a parking lot full of pick-ups full of people from local tribes who come into the town to buy and sell their goods. The temple was up a surprising number of steps but did have a giant gold Buddha and views of the Mekong which made it worth it.

In the afternoon I started the long journey to Bangkok. First up a mini-bus out to the boarder, which was just some scrub land and a few buildings for passport control and a tunnel under no-mans land into Thailand. Once we had our visa stamped in and out, I got a mini-bus and taxi to the nearest train station where a lovely lady on the info desk told me to pre-buy some dinner, let me on to the Wi-Fi, and how to find my car. Luckily I was there in plenty of time. I had got a sleeper bunk and there was a bag of clean sheets and a pillow and plenty of spaces for bags. I settled in for the evening and slept pretty well until the morning when the guard changed our beds back into seats. A little late, and 17 hours later, I arrived in Bangkok.Read more