Savannakhet

The day we traveled to Savannakhet was the last day of the Laotian New Year. So, in the continued spirit of the last few days, in every town or village we passed through we endured buckets of water being thrown on the bus. It got in through the windows and got us pretty wet, but we didn't have it nearly as bad as the bus driver. In parts of the world like this, bus drivers often drive with the door open for increased ventilation. This works pretty well most of the time, but on this day it meant the people with the buckets had a clear shot at him and they took advantage of it. Sometimes he'd be going along slowly and whoooosh! a big splash comes in and drenches him. Oh well, we all kept cool.

Savannakhet is a small town, smaller than Pakse, but bigger than Champassak. But you wouldn't be able to tell the size of the town if you saw the size of the party happening on the main street. Traffic was bumper to bumper and completely stopped. The street was full of trucks loaded with people, tailgates down. They were so stuffed that more than once we watched people falling out the back of the trucks. And of course, everyone had water. The people in the streets, the people in the trucks. At our last stops there were distinct groups of people celebrating and throwing water, here one group just blended into the next. There was music blaring and it was madness! We enjoyed the fun a little, but we were mostly partied out by this point. We went to our guest house and got some much needed rest.

Our main intent stopping in Savannakhet was to get our Vietnamese visas (last visas of the trip!), so the next morning we did that with surprisingly little difficulty. Our Laos visa took several days, our Vietnamese visa 10 minutes. I guess it all averages out. We spet the next few days seeing some of the minor sights like a dinosaur museum (many fossils have been found in the province) and various temples.

We also spent a great deal of time at the local bazaar. We're nearing the end of the trip and don't have so many material things waiting for us back home. So we're taking advantage of the good prices and buying clothes and things we'll need when we return to our old lifestyles. The only thing is that it's much more difficult for us to buy clothes than we expected. In the United States, I fit well into a medium sized shirt. In Laos I am an extra large and no one has extra large sized shirts. I feel like a giant whenever I try to shop. Female travelers be warned, unless you have iron clad self-esteem, don't go clothes shopping in Asia.