I love brightly painted happy buses & if they have balled fringe curtains - even better! Well the bus I took from Vientiane to Paske did not disappoint...it could easily have been done by the 'Pimp My Ride' guys! It was a double-decker thing airbrushed in every non-human neon color, with bright pink & green curtains & karaoke monitors.

For a 9hr overnight ride, it wasn't hellacious. I even fell sound enough asleep that I barely woke up when we ran over something (someone?!?). But still, not a great sleep. So when I stumbled off the bus in a sleep stupor, I was lucky to find these 2 Brits who seemed to have a plan. And it turned out they were there to see the same things I wanted to.

We ended up renting motorbikes that day & driving into the Bolaven Plateau. I've really begun channeling my inner biker chick! It was a beautiful drive thru small mountain villages with coffee fields & we went to see 2 fantastic waterfalls in the jungle. Just an all around perfect day.

The next day the 3 of us rented motorbikes again & this time went to the Khmer ruins of Champask, a world heritage site. The temple was fairly large & well preserved & I got all excited because there were both Hindu & Buddhist deities. But like the day before, the ride was more interesting than the attraction. We had to drive thru more little villages while avoiding cows, water buffaloes, goats, dogs & suicidal chickens. But best of all, we had to cross the river & there was no bridge... so we drove drive down the river bank, then pushed the bikes over a 6" wide piece of wood onto the "ferry" which was just 2 canoes connected together by five more 6" wide planks! Plus the canoes leaked!! The captain had to bail while he steered!!!