I woke up a bit late as I had nothing to really do and I wasn't sure what time the bus would come otherwise I could have gone to a museum 2km away. I showered and packed and sat outside reading, the suitcase rolled better but only on the other side from what was working best recently. A guy packed up his motorbike right in front of me so I went to get some food and got a sandwich with an extra hotdog and 2 donuts. I got back to the guesthouse and the owner had moved my suitcase and there was a guy on the motorbike there to pick me up so I got on and we went to Tam's cafe. I had 30 minutes there so I had a smoothie and the guy there talked and talked about how he lived and worked in Laos but came back here for his family. I paid hime for the drink (20k) and bus ticket (a whopping 450k) and then at 9.45 he drove me to the bus station where I got on an already packed bus which costs about 300k from Hue. It was packed with carrots, rice, bags, my suitcase and every seat was taken. I sat next to a German guy who was going back to Laos to do a motorbike trip there and we talked quite a bit on the journey. We got to the border around 12 and after the formality of exiting Vietnam we went to the wrong queue for Laos which the bus conductor found funny as he took us to the visa on arrival place. The German had to pay 900k dong including a few dollars for his photo but mine was even more as I was British so I paid 40USD or 1million dong. Still I was in Laos and I saw the bus which hadn't driven off as I'd read so I nipped to the toilet and when I came out the bus had gone. So I had to walk the 800 metres to the cafe where the bus was and people were having lunch. The German thought it was included in the bus fare but I checked and it wasn't and he was charged 20k Kip (£2) which somehow became $1 which of course he paid. We got back on the bus and I ate my sandwich and napped a bit. Later we stopped at a market where the driver bought a live chicken, maybe for dinner and they were selling snails at the market. We got back on the bus and arrived at Savannakhet just before 5pm. The German went off to get a bus north and I went looking for a cash machine and somewhere to stay. I walked south down a main road past an internet shop and came to an atm which was on the map unfortunately it didn't work for both of my cards. I carried on 400 metres to the next place and this one was out of order. The next one didn't accept foreign cards at all and then across the road the machine in the bank didn't work for me either. I was wondering if maybe their bank connection was down and I saw a guesthouse on the map round the corner so I had a look and the guy there got me a room for 60,000 kip ($7.4)which is better than the $10 agoda had. I took the room but the guy wanted me to pay so I connected to WiFi to translate that I would get the money when I found a machine that worked. I went to another bank and I saw 3 Quebecois there who were looking for somewhere to stay so I said my place was ok and after I got cash out (hooray) they followed me to the Camnay guesthouse. I sorted out my things then paid the guy and went to get some street food and see the town before it got dark. I got to the corner and the 3 Canadians were there as apparently the bed was too hard, something I didn't check or really care about. I didn't see any food places like the ones I'd gone past earlier that I wanted and I went to a temple which was ok and had a 2 floor square platform temple thing that I went up. I left and went to a nearby Vietnamese temple that was closed and then to a church that was also closed. It was getting a bit dark and the museum was of course closed but also didn't open on weekends. I walked to the Mekong river and went north to make a circle and I went to one more temple before it closed. Then I walked along the river to a park that was closed and there was a small park with a statue and people running around. There wasn't much point in carrying on sightseeing so I went to the bus station to find a market and some food. I got a pack of 10 sandwiches, 3 boiled eggs and a chicken skewer. The sandwiches turned out to be bread with a little sweet patch on them so not a good choice. I went to the internet place and took an hour for 4k and ate some food there. The computer crashed at some point so I moved computer and ended up leaving about 8.45. I went back to the guesthouse and the WiFi was bad so I couldn't watch much of a poker game. I managed to find out there was a 10.30 but to Pakse and then I would need another bus and a boat to Don Det and it was expensive. I watched a bit of TV and they had news and football in English. The football was Bundesliga though and so I read and went to sleep quite early at 10.30 as I didn't really feel very productive.
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