13th April – Pakse to Thakhek

 Today we have 335 km to drive to our overnight stop at Thakhek on the Mekong river. As we leave Pakse we notice the interestng side cars that the motor bikes have, good for the hot sun & the raining season.  Better than using an umbrella as we saw people doing today!

The roads are really good but we are travelling through almost continuous villages and there are cows, goats, dogs & chickens wandering onto the road, so we have to keep alert.

The new year celebrations are really starting to rev up and we pass through many villages where the young people are throwing water and coloured dye bombs at us.  It is all meant in good fun and we cop our fair share, with only 1 making it through the passenger window and at one stage we had a purple windscreen & bonnet.

Shamrock is our leader for the day & they find us a great morning tea spot comlete with toilets and a shop selling paddle pops

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One village we went through was making rubber rubbish bins (complete with lids) from old rubber tyres, another sold bananas and another had a vibrant market selling great looking produce.

One section of road had a few potholes, but nothing to cause any real concern if you could manage to dodge them.

The Lao people like to paint their houses in lovely bright colours, greens, yellows & even pink!

Then as Kay was driving we had a blow out on the passenger rear wheel.  We pulled over and managed to find an open area that could fit all 8 cars & it even had a tree for shade, although today is a lot cooler than yesterday.  It was actually spitting with rain as we stopped but not heavy enough to wet us.  The team sprung into action, out boot was emptied, the jack & spare were taken out, we had 2 other jacks that we used as well as the guys had trouble getting the bottle jacks under the car on the dirt. We had picked up a nail in the tyre, so the flat had nothing to do with the potholed road.

We decided to have an early lunch and make the most of the time while the wheel was changed. some inquisitive locals came up to watch what we were doing.  Half an hour later we were back on the road!

One town we drove through had some very impressive houses and a fancy waterfall on the roundabout.

We made really good time and arrived at our hotel by 2:30 so some had a relaxing afternoon while others worked on their cars.  The hotel overlooks the Mekong river & into Thailand on the other side.