Pakse, Laos

After a well Tylenol-PMed 10 hour overnight bus ride, we arrived in Pakse in the south of Laos. I had never taken a sleeper bus but it was actually sort of a great way to travel; the pink satin curtains, pink teddy bear blankets and pink and white gingham pillowcase in our little upper level bunk was a really nice touch. I'm afraid the solo french traveler in the bunk across from ours didn't feel the same way when his loud/slightly creepy Laotian male/bunkmate arrived.
Pakse is a small town on the Mekong that is currently hosting, somewhat to our surprise, the Lao National Games. It is like a really charming version of the Olympics complete with bowling, badminton and a Lao game called kataw which is like soccer on a volleyball court with a small wicker ball. After a little difficulty finding a room at 6:30am (no seriously, a lot of people are here for the games!), we found something a bit out of our budget and passed out to sleep off the rest of our little blue sleepinapills.
Tomorrow begins 3 days of motorbike travel around the Bolevan Plateau which is a beautiful farming area that has several waterfalls.