Get yer motor runnin’!

Peach, Chris, Nicola and myself left Tadlo, sans Darren, and caught an early bus back to Pakse. After checking email, going to the bank and having lunch we headed for the bus station to catch a bus to the 4000 islands. The 4000 islands are in very wide section of the Mekong. Some of the islands are just big enough for one person to stand on whilst others have people living on them and are big enough for farms and villages.

We got to the bus station to catch the 2pm bus. When we got there we found out the bus was actually a large pickup truck with bench seats in the back which was packed with people and produce. I’ll take a guess and say there were probably 20 people in the back including us. Peach, Chris and Nicola got a seat on a bench inside but I picked a spot at the back on some rice bags that were tied to the bumper. All was well at first until I realised there was a basket of freshly caught fish tied to the roof and that fishy liquid was dripping on me. No problem. With a bit of adjustment I was able to avoid the dripping and still dangle my legs out the back of the vehicle. As we took off I pumped Jimi Hendrix on my ipod. It was the perfect soundtrack. As ‘All Along The Watchtower’ started I thought of that great scene from the movie ‘Whitnail & I’ where it’s playing as they head off on their road trip. I spent the whole 2.5 hours or so of the trip looking out the back and grooving to tunes. The lush tropical greenery reminded me of Vietnam war movies and TV shows like ‘Tour of Duty’. It was probably my favourite journey of the trip so far.

Here’s a shot of the inside of the truck we were in.

Here’s the truck after we’d gotten off it. The basket at the back is the one that was dripping on me.

This was my view for most of the ride.