Savanaket

To tell you the truth I didn't get very far from the bus station. Last night the bus from Paxe arrived at nine. It took five hours to go two hundred kilometres. That was because it stopped to pick up passengers, stopped so the lady sitting in the front could buy a basket, stopped so that the man sitting in the back could go and collect his chicken from his village, stopped so that the bus conductor could go and visit his auntie, stopped to wait for another bus that might, or might not connect with this bus, stopped so that the driver could get out and say hello to someone, stopped to pick up sacks of something, and so on. It seemed to spend more time stopped than moving.

So by the time that I arrived I wanted nothing more than to find a cheap hotel, which I did, within spitting distance of the bus station. I checked in and went to a local restaurant where lots of young Lao people were drinking beer and making a lot of noise. The food had a lot of chilli in it. The restaurant had long rough-hewn wooden tables and benches and plaster (or maybe concrete) statues of dinosaurs, elephants, zebras and penguins, all the same size, among a forest of green potted plants. Two big-leaved trees provided dappled shade. A TV was playing an American film with no sound, while a separate system played Lao pop music. The young Lao people all cheered and laughed when a couple kissed in the film. They gave me friendly smiles from time to time.