With a "just flag anything down, you'll be fine. A sang taew should take you" our friends dropped Claire & I besides Route 13 - the main road heading south - and sped off towards Vientiane in the tuk-tuk. Looking around me I saw our a road, a restaurant and a few empty fields. The first two sang taews (utes with benches in the back) didn't stop. The next one didn't know the name of the town I was trying to get to and the fourth told us sang taews didn't go that far (I think) - that we'd need to get a bus. Thankfully the word for bus is the same in Lao as in Thai.
Shortly after a bus came rolling around the corner and Claire & I jumped on, getting wedged into the back seat, our bags taking up the aisle. The ride was four hours of un-air-conditioned joy, and the pancake we'd had for breakfast was starting to look thin. Finally the conductor motioned us to get off, we alighted again near a restaurant and little else. With a little help we found our way to the sang taew heading East towards our destination. Sharing the ride with us was three generations of Lao women, all dressed in their traditional, intricately woven dresses, the eldest of whom was chewing beetle-nut and who was less than pleased when we stopped to help another sang taew with a flat tire. An hour ride through a forest encircled by limestone caste mountains took us to our destination that day and dropped us just an hour before sun down. We spent the night in Na Hin, which I'll cover in the next post.
The second day of our unconfirmed adventure began with us trying to get to Tang Lo caves - an 8km cave that you can boat down in located in a national park. We awoke early and were at the market by 8, only to be told the only Sang Taew didn't leave till 11 and that the road was washed out so we'd need to take a boat part of the way. We sat for a while and contemplated a cow as it tried to push through a gate from its paddock to our seating after which we checked with the drivers how much the boat would coast - US$50 return! An exhorbinant amount due to tourism and the need to charter the whole boat with no other tourists to help bear the costs. Normally $50 wouldn't be too much of a problem, however we'd not budgeted for it, were going to have to spend more on food & accom than anticipated when I last drew money out and the nearest ATM or Bank was 2 days travel away in Vientiane or else in Vietnam. With much mathematics and reluctance we abandoned our plans to get to the caves.
Rushing now, we boarded the first Sang Taew back to route 13. From there we were efficiously transferred to a second Sang Taew, and 1.5 hours down the road into a minivan for the last leg, dropping us in Savanakhet. The minivan leg we shared with 17 others, though the bus seated 12 including the driver. Next to me was a girl of 4 or 5, when we stopped for a snack her parents bought her roast grasshopper on a stick, which she was very happy with.
I've come to know now that travel in Lao takes 2-3 hours per 100kms by bus or boat. I've also never travelled with so little certainty of being able to actually get to my destination, which is a liberating experience and travelling local style has let me see a little more into the lives of the Lao people.
No comments:
Post a Comment