The plan for today was to cycle to the Laos border and then catch a bus to Pakse and then another bus down to Don Khon. Why the busses ? Well, we were still struggling with a poor attitude towards Lation roads and drivers after the brief journey from Vang Vieng down to Vientiane.

As it turned out, the mini busses at the border were initially rather rapacious and by the time they had come to their senses we had decided to climb on our bicycles and cycle to Pakse. The road wasn't that bad but the drivers are certainly more aggressive than what we have become accustomed to over the past two weeks on the Thai side of the Mekhong. We also passed three other cycle tourists travelling towards the Thailand border - we stopped hoping for a chat but all we got was a wave and they shot on by.

We had lunch at a very nice restaurant on the main drag - Laos vegetable curry and Tom Yum Khai plus rice. Very reasonable, very good. Suddenly our poor attitude towards Laos started to weaken.