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Paksé, Laos
15° 7' N 105° 46' E
Oct 14, 2007 16:34
Distance 128km

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Bigger White House, on a bend in the Mekong.

Text written in: English

Laos, its still an ahhhhhhhh sort of a country, nice people, nice country.                           

Laos is the only place in Asia where you can walk past the guest houses multiple times, obviously looking for some where to stay, and only on the 4th walk past will they politely say, Sabaday,(Hello in Laos), guest house? In Pakse the same thing happens. Its like going to a town that isn't on the tourist route in any other Asian country, except that, this is the tourist route. I love Laos. Tourism is really picking up here, and may be in a few years the people will have got that unfortunate ruthless entrapenerialism that seems to have gripped the rest of Asia. They seem to be more than content to chill out in their guest houses and chat with friends, than getting customers into rooms. Moto and tuk tuk drivers really aren't that bothered either.                   

Pakse is the provincial town of the south, but like most other big towns and cities in Laos, its dead at the busiest of times. If you think of a town in the west at may be 8am on a Sunday morning, thats how busy the streets are here in the day time. It seems to have everything that a big city center has, except that there aren't any suburbs, so no people and no traffic, the suburbs are the villages in the jungle and they don't own any or many motos to get into town with, so there is very little traffic or people about. The govenors building is twice the size of the White house in DC. Laos only has around 5.6million people and the states 300million. The shopping center is huge, but the top 2 floors are deserted, something dosen't quite add up. The population of the town is only 66,000. May be in another 5 or so years the country will have caught up in terms of development and modernisation, and it won't look so out of place.           

I watched the sunset from a barge on the Mekong, watching a fisherman bait his hooks and then headed back to the Hotel to watch the rugby, bad luck France, 14-9, Come on England!