14 December 2017. Don Khong to Champasak

I had arranged my transfer to Champasak with a Mr Phoumy who seemed to be a friend of the lady who owned where I was staying. He had given me a price for crossing the river and for the bus and said he'd only be paid his 70,000 kip once I was on the bus. He proved good to his word. We set off soon after 11.30 in his boat to cross the Mekong. Apart from an alarming moment when he cut the engine to talk on his mobile only for it to be very reluctant to restart, it was a nice crossing.


Then we hopped on a motor bike to get up to the main road where we waited for the bus, along with a family of chickens.
I was glad to have Mr Phoumy waiting with me as the time ticked by. After a while, a bus came but it was full and there was said to be another following. We waited again and in the end Mr Phoumy phoned and confirmed that our wait would soon be over. He was right. A very crowded and well-worn bus arrived and on I climbed.
The journey passed quite quickly with a very careful driver slowing down for cows crossing the road and other hazards. We turned off for Muang where I took a boat across the river with a few other people.
Then it was a tuk tuk shared with a couple of French ladies to where I was staying - The Nakorn Cafe. It is a very pleasant set of buildings - two accommodation buildings and the cafe, with an outlook to the river.. It does however have its snags. It had not been clear when I booked that the room was in an annexe which always has a different feel to it. Furthermore, this annexe was still being completed and so it had to be accessed across duck boards.

So it was a near-idyll rather than the full paradise in my instant opinion. The dogs in the garden had no such reservations, though.
Opposite is a striking Wat

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