Southern Laos

Laos

August 2005
2 days

Gavin wrote:
we arrived in Laos after a horrible journey from cambodia, we had arguements with the border officials as they tried to extort money from us (we gave in, in the end).

southern Laos was pretty lame and we only spent a couple of days there getting to the North and Vietienne.

Lorraine wrote:
Cant remember the last thing I wrote.But the first bit will be a bit of a moan Im afaraid. Anyway, have since been to Laos. It was the most hassle getting there ever - there was no direct bus so had to go back to Phnom Pehn for the nif\ght from Siem reap and then had to get a bus to some border town in Cambodia for the night and then got a mini bus next day to the Laos border. Also had to get a v. uncomfortable speed boat right to the border except we had to stop at the Cambodia checkpoint to get out - they tried to charge us money again and again I refused. So he let us off. And then the boat man tried to charge us money to take us across the river to the Lao Border! We pointed out that we had paid for the boat to take us all the way to the border and we wouldnt pay another penny so we all ended up haveing a huge row! I nearly threw my bottle of water at him and all three of us were swearing out heads off! Eventually he went off in the boat and left us there but another boat man took us across like they should have done in the first place.

So got to the Loas checkpoint - which was just a shed in this horrible little village. This fat man refused to stamp our passports until we paid him.He told us he was a police man so I pointed out if he wasa police man then he should know blackmail was illegal. Then we asked for official documnats and Id to support his claims - of course he had nonw. SO another row ensued which led to me and Gav just walking off without out stamps. But as we were walking down this dark road with out backpacks not knowing where we were going or how long it took and getting bitten to death we thought wed better turn back (and we didnt want to get arrested for enetering the country illegally). Anyway, we went back to the village and it took us ages for someone willing to give us a lift into the next village - seriously these were the most miserable people ever! We got the stamps off the horrible old &Quot;police man (only after I called him every name under the sun) and got away - it took over 2 hours just to get a stamp - it was the worse day ever!!!!

Then we ended up in some other horrible village after abotu an hours ride on a motor bike and had to get a boat over to a place called the Si Pahn Don - which is the 4000 islands which was meant to be v. beautiful. We went to one of the Islands called Don Det - it was a dump - no electricity, over priced everything, absolutely nothing to do. It was just surrounded by the dirty Mekong. So we left the next day and tried the biggest Island. Not quite as bad as they had electricity but still there was nothing to do, took a bike out to explore but not much to see.

So left next day.