8th March, back to Amazing Thailand again!

In case you were wondering, this is NOT possible to cross without a boat...unless you are a olympic lifeguard and can swim for 1km while dragging a bike along with you...

had to pay 10,000kip for this boat trip to Champasak province to see Wat Phu, one of the World Heritage sites.

Top of Wat Phu. this is a pre-Angkor temple before the Khmer empire moved their empire further inland towards Angkor Wat.

trying to feel what the Khmer king mus have felt like while on the top of this structure ages ago... darn shiok...

Anyway, after visiting Wat Phu, i continued on my journey to Pakse city - a town just by the Mekong and only 50km from Thailand. As usual, looked around town for a bit then started to look for a place for the night. I got to a temple and asked to stay for the night. Hmmm "ok, no problem" said the young monks.

So i started to set up camp and look around blah blah. around 7+pm or so, some other monk came over and told me i had to ask the head monk for permission and i cannot sleep here unless the head monk gives me permission. ooops....sorry, thats my bad. prob should have asked a senior monk instead of some junior monks on the way to enlightenment.

"Sa Bai Dee Head monk, may i sleep here for the night?" and then he actually asked to see my passport. hmmm... ok, this is prob the 1st time i have ever been asked for my passport after i introduced myself. So i whipped out my bright, blaring red Singapore Biometric Passport wrapped in beautiful plastic casing and passed it to him. looked thru it a couple times and nodded his head occasionally. i hope thats a good sign?

after a few mins of perusing thru my personal details on the passport, he said "hmmm i think its better that i ask the village chief." er ok... so i continued waiting around and went to observe the prayer session that the monks were having in the hall. Finally, the news came... the village chief says goodbye!

sians... all the monks (even the head monk) had said ok and allowed me to stay there. but apparently in Laos, you cant do anything without going thru the village chief and especially when it involves foreigners. Lao People's Democratic Republic still isnt very democratic after all, and you cannot let a foreigner stay in your home without going thru the village chief first. Huh?!? By Lao law, i also cannot invite my Laos galfren into my home if we are not married. (dun worry, i havent got one!)

Anyway, i later learnt from my conversations with other ppl that the village chief has a book for every household and apparently you have to register every guest that stays with you with him. even if you dun register, there are "informants" around who will report it to the village chief when they see somebody not local staying there, especially when he looks farang. (duh.) it could be your neighbour, gardener, maid, security guard, any Tom that sees some1 entering your house! not sure how true this is but i hear it from quite a credible source so i am assuming its true to a large extent. you think be village chief so relax ah, of course u gotta do some work other than drink beer Lao every day la...

Anyways, it was alr about 8+ by the time the village chief decided to play safe and asked me to get lost. so i jus packed up everything and cycled across the bridge, over the Mekong and found another temple, this time out of the city and situated right at the top of a hill. this temple was much smaller - only had 5 monks. this time, i made sure that i asked the seniorest of the senior monks and he said OK immediately. no village chief to consult. no passport to check. no rubbish. really nice guy and talked with him for quite long because he could speak a little english.

the temple is situated at the top of this hill...

but i (& the monks) slept in this hut thats at the foot of the hill. crazy, did you think i would climb all the way to the top to sleep for a night? i heard from the monk that its a 1hr ride up...

 i guess Lao ppl are still very friendly and in fact, i dun blame the monks in the city temple. cause i know that they really want to help me but sometimes, there are things that they really just cant do. this is sth that they understand as well because when i was packing up, the monks were very apologetic and told me that i can still sleep in temples in villages or smaller towns but not in Pakse, because its a very big town and i guess political (and mayb others?) powers interfere quite abit in daily lives.

Anyways, I know i am probably gonna sound like a glutton when i say this, but i still gotta say it. i actually changed my planned route and decided to go back into Thailand again! the reason for this? the food in Laos is expensive and not delicious! huh?! food in Laos is expensive?! let me enlighten all you ppl who thought differently...

Laos is poorer than Thailand. So food in Laos should be cheaper than Thailand.
FALSE!!! in fact, when i was travelling thru the southern part of Laos, everything was more expensive than in Thailand, Vietnam and even Cambodia(ok to be fair its not alot, mayb like SGD 70 cents or sth like that). this is because this part of Laos is so undeveloped and far from the capital that basically everything is imported- mainly thailand and vietnam. so you have fish sauce from vietnam. chili sauce from thailand. soy products from thailand. bottled drinks from vietnam (these get lesser as you move away from the vietnamese border). if you studied economics or have any common sense at all, bringing a bottle of 1USD chilli sauce from thailand will cost money and you probably have to sell it for 1.1USD to earn some money, so naturally everything is more expensive!

besides cost, i think the Laos food variety is rather limited and there is so little meat (lots of sticky rice though) that i kinda dun even have the mood to eat in Laos. since i had a great gastronomic adventure in Thailand the previous time, i might as well head there again since i am only 50km away right? doesnt make sense for me to pay 1.1USD for chilli sauce when i can get it for 1USD after cycling 50km right? so i decided to head for Amazing Thailand again! =P yummy

the overtime fee that the Laos border ppl charged me...

When i crossed the Laos-Thailand border, it was 8th March and was a weekday. i was asked to pay this overtime fee which was ridiculous. i hadnt overstayed, in fact i only stayed 5 days when i can stay up to 30 days! it wasnt a public holiday as well, so it was a normal working day. so i went to confront the officials and asked to see their chief. after some time, some dude who could speak english came over and tried to placate me. he actually told me that it was International Women's Day so its a holiday so there is a overtime fee for everybody. HUH?! 8th march is International Women's Day?! to be honest, i think he is lying but then again, i cant be sure because who knows? any of you out there know the date without having to search the internet?

even if it is true, Laos is definitely not one of the countries i can imagine celebrating/commemorating Women's Day. 9th March is prob Men's Day. 10th March is children day. 11th march is grandfather day. 12th march is boyfriends day. 13th march is stop dog abuse day. Repeat formula anyway you wish until you get 1million kip from farangs who pass thru the border. then the border chief can retire and drink beer lao everyday. woah, i love to take up this job anytime man!

ah wells, decided to jus forget it cause i am too lazy to ask more qns to get back my 10,000 kip. i will jus take it as payment for entering Amazing Thailand to fill my hungry stomach so hopefully 10,000kip can buy you more fish sauce to throw into your sticky rice and some beer Lao to go with it as well.

and the border market is roaring with activity on both sides