After a long 10 hour journey back North through Laos to Savannakhet - due to take only 7 hours, we arrived at about 7 at night - via what was apparently the VIP bus but felt very much like the local bus, due to the amount of local trade taking place en route; the aisle was lined with 50kg bags of rice, at least 3-5 mopeds on top and more stops than ever before.
We arrived not really knowing where to stay or where we had been dropped off, so after a small walk we got a Tuk and arrived at a guesthouse we'd heard of online and settled deciding to hunt further the next day.. Once again, this kind of hunt proved unsuccessful, the only guesthouse we'd fancied the look of was twice the price for a similar room but with WiFi... Although it's a nice thing to have, it's definitely not worth doubling a room rate!
Heading into town we directed ourselves toward the Dinosaur Museum - which sadly was closed at the time, in a Spanish siesta style most things appeared to close between 12 and 2, so we headed further in to town - finding some interesting Wats we came across a few buildings inside one where a team of 6 were manufacturing Buddhas', that was quite a sight! Another Wat was having its entrance gate and wall renovated, again another interesting sight.. Savannakhet was another town heavily influenced by the French architecturally, with several buildings around the town signposted and on maps - though many have fallen to a state of disrepair which is a shame in the most part - some being particularly pretty, others a formality. Heading back toward the Museum we paid our admission and had a broken English tour - though to be fair you don't often get to hold the bones being described. The tooth of a T-Rex is very, very sharp. A few digs have taken place across the country in the last 10 - 100 years, though there must be so much left to find that it is quite saddening considering the vast mineral resources of the country that are blatantly going to be mined in the coming decades without much consideration for these important records.
The day after we trolled the town again, finding the main street instead and hunting for a Cafe with WiFi and a free coffee we had a voucher for... Sadly this was closed, and after returning a few times to check it wasn't the usual 'siesta' it was apparently closed til the New Year; we booked up a tour for the next day and dropped into the Cafe iLounge Bar instead, a funky little place run by a great Canadian guy happy to talk music, films and sort us out a good meal to boot - good for advise to as at this point we were panicking that our intended plan to leave on the Sunday (when Visas expired) was when the bus to Vietnam didn't run - thankfully not the case.
New Years Eve we went trekking. Heading out a few kilometres from town we first visited Natuay Salt Factory. An underwater reservoir is pumped out into either pools to be evaporated by the sun or heated in large metal troughs by wood burning ovens - the latter being most important during the monsoon season.. After leaving we headed into some Dong Natad forest, which led towards a local sacred lake Nong Lom and at the very end of this was the most important Pagoda for Buddhists in Laos the That Ing Hang. In the forest we had a good chance to learn some local uses for the plants around, from edible flowers, roots and plants - for medicinal and food purposes - to a tree that produces oil for burning. This was pretty fascinating, and made for some great sightings of insects - including one tree stump covered with the most spiders I have ever seen. Thousands.
That evening we headed out for dinner before going to the Savan Casino, built to improve tourism in the area.. It was surreal, having spent 30 days in varying degrees of 'luxury' to be suddenly surrounded by Thai style neon and the typical slots, tables and video-gambling it made my head spin. Fortunately we spent very little and actually won enough to cover more or less our whole time there, with enough time to spare before the New Year itself; heading back into town we found a party going on at a square near to our hotel. Music, beer, small fireworks, it was enough to be able to enjoy and have a fun little dance learning a few 'funky' moves in the Lao style. Next morning, 1st January, it was time for the next move, all the way across from the West of Laos to the East and into Vietnam.
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