Day Two: Are we there yet? (Singapore to Pakse, Laos)

In this case the 'there' was Pakse in Southern Laos.

We managed to pack and wheel our various forms of baggage to the checkin counter only to find that there is much diversity in trying to use the online kiosks and baggage drop  when there are seven of you. Some of us got nothing : no boarding pass and no baggage sticker, whilst others had the boarding pass and the baggage sticker but the baggage drop wouldn't accept it. Princesss Kerryn sailed through the whole process intact whilst the rest of us had to make sure we had taken our blood pressurse pills to avoid a heart attack. Finally six of us had to line up to speak to a real person (heaven forbid!) who managed to sort out the mess!

The rest of the day was spent trialing various forms of transport:

1. Skytrain to the right Terminal at Singapore Airport

2. A Scoot flight to Vientiane in Laos ( at least we had made it to the right country!)

3. Consumption of delicious iced coffees prior to jumping on an even smaller Scoot plane to Pakse Airport in southern Laos

4.

A long drive with very informative guide Champur ( pronounced like shampoo) to the banks of the Mekong River.

5. A 'boat' ride across the river which consisted of a platform mounted on two narrow fishing boats, with us perched on the top sitting on plastic chairs.  The breeze was beautiful but the challenges were daunting in the dark. We arrived at La Folie Lodge but in order to actually get to the Lodge itself we had to carefully climb down a number of planks by balancing precariously, and at points hanging onto the staff, and then slowly make our way across some woven bamboo mats with metres of thick mud underneath.  And in the dark! My progress was somewhat hampered by carrying the two bottles of gin we had bought duty free! Amazingly we all managed to avoid the mud.

The Lodge consists of beautiful old traditional wooden buildings with all mod cons, right on the banks of the Mekong. We were met with cold towels and icy drinks which were heaven after all of that excitement.

After being shown to our rooms we reassembled for dinner in the delightful open air restaurant and then attempted to get an early night, and to get our bodies accustomed to the 4 hour time difference with Melbourne. your excited adventurous correspondent Dianne

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