On the way to Thakhek

April 14, 2012.

On the way to Thakhek.

While staying at a village in the middle of nowhere completely away from society, I realized that I had no cash on myself. Of course, the village had no bank. Now how was I going to get back to the world without being able to pay for the bus!?

Luckily though, I met a group of backpackers who were traveling on bikes. They said they would take me on their back. When I told them that I have a huge backpack of at least 20 kilogram and a paddle on me, they seemed to regret their kindness. But, once nice, always nice. Thank you guys.

By the way, in the end I was able to exchange money with a local guy. He was a big money collector, and was very delighted to see all the currencies I had in my wallet. Japanese Yen, Euro's, Taiwanese Dollars, Chinese Yuan, Korean Won. In the end the guy chose for Euro's. It always feels good to have some money on you again and make someone happy at the same time!

But, even though I now had money on me, the backpackers were still friendly enough to take me on their back anyway. One of them took me with my paddle in my hands, another one took my backpack. It looked pretty tough to have that backpack on your back while driving, but the guy said it was nothing.

We started our journey at around 1 o'clock. At first there seemed to be no problem. While enjoying the magnificent scenery (mountains, rivers, locals, cows, dogs) I had a talk with the American guy who was riding the bike. But soon, it started to rain and far away we could hear and see huge thunders. The guy who was carrying my backpack told me that it was heavier than he had expected, and that he was not able to steer very carefully with the thing on its back. Thus, the backpackers decided to drop me off at the next small town. There was a bus stop there, so I could take the bus.

I was heading to a place called Thakhek, and asked the guy at the bus stop when my bus would arrive.
"Tomorrow!" the guy said.
Great, now I have to stay all alone in this village with nothing to do for one whole more day. I didn't want to give up. With my backpack, I walked the roads in hope to find a good place to hitchhike. But no luck. Around this area, hardly any cars pass by, and if they do, they do so to drive just around the corner, not to go all the way to 200 kilometer far away Thakhek.

I walked back to the bus stop. A guy was sitting there, apparently waiting for a bus to come.
"Where are you going?"  he asked me in decent English.
"Thakhek"
"Then come with me, I am heading there too."
Although there was no bus to Thakhek, the guy explained that there was a small bus heading towards another town, and that we could change to Thakhek from there.
It was a friendly guy who seemed well educated. He was working in this town as an accountant (it surprised me accountants exist in a place like this), but he was originally from a small town in the south. Thakhek is on the way there.

When the bus arrived, it turned out to be no bus. It was just a Took-took. But that didn't matter as long as it took us to where we had to go! On the way, some guys joined and took their motorcycle on board.

There was now hardly any space left to sit and we would all have to hold the bike to prevent it to fall.
Again, the scenery on the way was beautiful. Sometimes you would almost think that the whole country of Laos is just one big nature reservoir.

After arriving in the town, I walked with the guy who had been helping me to some small restaurant, and in front of this restaurant he stopped. Here the bus would come, he said. That was strange, there was no bus stop signal or whatsoever. I went to the toilet at the restaurant, and bought a bottle of water.

Soon, there really came a bus. And this time it was a real bus too. I could now finally feel at rest. Apparently it would take around 5 hours from here to get to Thakhek. Would be funny if I would arrive earlier then my backpacker friends!