Tiring of the sleepy Si Phan Don islands, I travelled north to the regional capital of Pakse, arriving on Friday, December 29. I was running short of cash, and anxious to find a bank that would cash my traveller’s cheques (such facilities being very few and far between in Laos). To my horror, I discovered that the banks in Pakse had all decided to close one day early for no obvious reason, leaving me to eke out the next four days on my last $100US. This is a quite a bit of money in Laos… so long as you don’t want to actually do anything touristy, which obviously I did.

Undeterred, I found a nice, but affordable hotel, and spent a pleasant few days in Pakse which is quite a nice town. From Pakse I hired a motorcycle, a new, and rather brave experience for me since I had never ridden before in my life! I discovered that I rather enjoyed it.

On the first day I rode down to Wat Phu Champasak, the Laos answer to Ankor Wat, though rather pale by comparison. The most memorable part of the day would have to be the journey there which involved loading my motorcycle onto a jury-rigged “catamaran” composed of two canoes lashed together to cross a lake.

On the next day, New Years Eve, I rode up to a place called Tat Fane which is a local resort on the edge of a protected area. Tat Fane boasts several stunning waterfalls. I managed to get there just in time to join a Dutch tour group starting walking tour. At the end of the morning, we were taken to see a strange shelf waterfall where you can actually walk right up round behind the falls. We stopped at the falls for 30 minutes or so.

As you probably know, I’ve never been able to resist a challenge, and when I saw the jury-rigged “raft” attached to a rope running across the bottom of the falls, I couldn’t help myself. Inevitably, I ended plunging head-first and fully-clothed into the lake, much to the amusement of the Dutch tour group! But I had fun and a nice, if unintentional swim, and dried off quickly in the hot sun.

After lunch, it was literally just me and the tour guide, and he took me for a very adventurous climb around a couple of the local falls, including sitting right at the very vertiginous top of one twin cascade plunging over 120 metres (40 storeys) into the ravine below.

After such a full day’s walking, I was pretty knackered, and forwent the opportunity to see in the new year at the local Champakaliya disco! Instead, I arose early the next morning to catch a bus to Savanakhet, another largish city to the north. Although the distance is only 220km, and the roads are good these days, the local bus managed to make a simple journey into a 6 hour endurance test a) because there was no air-conditioning b) because the bus would stop every 15 minutes for no obvious reason. Definitely the most forgettable day this holiday. The one redeeming feature of the day was that I met a nice Californian guy called Mateo who at least provided good company.

Savanakhet turned out to be extremely forgettable, and much less pleasant than Pakse, despite being rather larger. Both Mateo and I were keen to be away and caught the bus the next day crossing to Dong Ha in Vietnam. By the time I arrived in Dong Ha, I was down to my last $12US, and feeling very anxious indeed. It was indeed a huge relief to discover that Dong Ha boasts not just one, but TWO ATM machines, the first I’ve seen since Bangkok. Thank god, because the girls at the bank there clearly didn’t understand travellers cheques and refused to cash them because I’d already signed them once (which you are supposed to do of course and then countersign in front of them).

Vietnam is incredibly different to Laos and Cambodia. Crossing the border is a surreal experience because EVERYTHING changes so drastically. The people are different, the culture is totally different and even the landscape seem dramatically different. Vietnam is lusher, richer, drastically more advanced and efficient and much more Chinese feeling in every aspect. The hotels here are of a drastically higher standard than anything available in Cambodia and Laos. The people are very outgoing and cheerful, and so far at least (fingers crossed) don’t seem at all the nasty money-grubbing cheat-your-own-grandmother types I’d been lead to believe they were. The food here is good, and I have been enjoying buying breakfast from the local boulangeries which are of a very high standard! There’s still a lot of very serious poverty though. Did you realise there are 80 million people in Vietnam?!? I had no idea.

From Dong Ha, I moved on to Hue, which is a surprisingly nice town, and spent a day exploring the town and the 200 year old citadel, which is interesting, though not particularly spectacular. From Dong Ha, I continued southwards to Hoi Ani where I am now. Hoi An is a very pretty town, or at least it would be except the skies opened up at 10am this morning and it’s been raining cats and dogs ever since! If it ever stops raining, I will be able to explore the town. All being well, I expect to stay here another couple of nights before heading north towards Hanoi and the final leg of my journey.