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Pakse, Laos

Posted by Stuart at 02:53 PM on August 15, 2005

I've been spending the last couple of days in Pakse, Laos. I feel like I should say something about it, but I really don't know what to say. Pakse itself is fairly boring with nothing really to do. It's a very new city -- created by the French around the turn of last century.

Pakse is actually 45 KM from the Thai border. To reach it, I had to take a big songtaew, along with about 30 Lao people. Some of them, I have to admit, were less than clean. The woman sitting next to me, in particular, must have stepped in some buffalo pies as she walked through the rice fields that morning. The bus was crowded, it was hot, the lady next to me carried quite the stench, and I have to admit that my mai bpen rai was severely tested throughout the hour-plus ride.

When I finally arrived in Pakse, things did not improve. I was armed with my Lonely Planet Laos book, but I quickly realized that the map of Pakse was useless. We crossed a bridge over the Mekong into Pakse, but (as I finally figured out later), that bridge was not on the map. Neither was the huge market where we were dropped off.

So, I ended wandering around in the blazing hot sun with my backpack trying to figure out where I was; trying to get some sense of direction. I walked down the first street until it became a dead-end. I walked down the next street until it became a dead-end as well. I didn't see anything that looked like a hotel or what would even pass as a "city".

So finally, I looked at the hotel list in my Lonely Planet, flagged down a tuk-tuk and said bai rongraem pakse (Go to Pakse Hotel). Luckily that phrase works in both Thai and Lao language.

Next thing I know, I am taking a hot shower in the surprisingly nice Pakse Hotel. It is run by a French man and his Lao wife (I think) and I highly recommend it. At $10 a night, it was close to heaven. Later that night I washed the rest of my travel troubles away with an amazingly good pepper steak and a Lao Beer an Italian restaurant. Another very pleasant surprise.

But other than that, there really isn't much to "write home about". The more interesting sites lie 80 km to the south at the small town of Champassak, where there are some old Khmer temple ruins. Another 80 KM south of that are the Mekong Islands. But both of those places will have to wait for the next trip. I'm sure I'll be back someday, now that I know where I'm going.