95 km

Oh man, the minute we walked out this morning we felt the heat building. Not a cloud in the sky! Oof. We set out to see if we could get across that bridge. We rode along the river to the base of the bridge, then back along it to where we could push through a break in the guard rail. We saw a couple of people on motos approaching the road block, and a moto coming across from the other side of the bridge. So! We rode up and, waiting only a second for a moto driver to push his scooter under the bar across the road, we did the same. Then we hopped on and rode across like we did this every day. No “present” necessary.

The land emptied out again, and soon it was just us and the water buffalos, only they were smart enough to cool off in the muddy ponds.

As we got close to the turn-off for Don Khong, one of the islands in the middle of the Mekong, we wondered how we’d know which road to take. Finally, we saw a sign to turn off for Don Khong. We rode through a small village to the end of the road at the edge of the river. A couple of young men, boys really, came out to greet us and asked us if we wanted to go across. We said yes, and asked how much. Four dollars, he said. We didn’t have any Lao Kip yet, but we knew that the dollar was also used in Laos, as well as Thai Baht. Dave thought $4 was too much, so we bought a couple of sodas and sat down in the shade to see if anyone else came along. Finally, we figured if we wanted to get over there we might as well pay the price, so we did. The ride took less than five minutes, and we were dropped right where the guest houses and restaurants are.

While I was looking at a guest house recommended in the Lonely Planet book (Pon’s) Dave talked with the woman next door, who said she had rooms for ten dollars. I wasn’t thrilled with the $12 room at Pon’s, so I looked at the woman’s $10 a/c room and it was perfect, an upstairs end room with windows on three sides. We wanted to stay a rest day here, and this was a comfortable choice. Plus, the woman running it was sweet and so smiling, and she helped us with learning the Laos greeting, saying thank you, and things like that.

After getting settled and showering, we sat on the river’s edge deck of our guest house and had banana shakes while watching the sunset reflect on the clouds.

A note on money: if you don’t yet have Kip, try to use Thai Baht rather than U.S. dollars, since their rate is much better for Baht. The local exchange for figuring prices in dollars is 8,000 Kip per dollar, but currently you should get a rate of at least 8,500 at a bank, or about 8,750 through an ATM. Whether using dollars or Baht, you will get Kip in return for everything but the guest house bill.