From Laos to Cambodia

We continued our journey with hitchhiking to southern Lao border with Cambodia… I did not plan to write about hitchhiking again, but this day was real NOPLANGO story 🙂

To leave from Pakse took the longest time to get a ride for now. Such a moment makes you thinking to seek other options, like go through Thailand or similar nonsense 🙂 It is good to have backup plan though… Finally, very nice couple took us directly to the border,  even they did not plan to go there, plus two other guys to 4000 islands.

To cross the border was pretty easy then, just did cost us 14 dollars together more for stamps, for leaving Laos as well as entry Cambodia. Nice… After crossing the border we appeared in the middle of nowhere. If you hear there is no traffic near border,  just believe it 🙂 

So we walked. After two kilometres we were picked up by really small I call it “cochtong” which goes like 10 km/h,  to the first lets say village. Then we walked again, and another “chochtong” took us few kilometres…  But still 40 km to the first city Stung Treng we wanted to stay over.

It was getting dark very fast. We started to reconcile with the fact being next 8 hours on the road walking. What an lovely idea! Everyone recommends to see the countryside in Cambodia so here we go… 😀 It did not look optimistic much to be honest.

There was just  a circling guy on motorbike offering us a ride, even having huge luggage with him.  He wanted to put it to some house and go all three on that bike (of course for money). Quite impossible lets say with our bags. But like out of blue the car was coming to us. The driver was really great, speaking decent English. He took us imidiatelly, even we were then 12 people in the car,  6 inside and 6 on the back 😀 And we were invited to have a dinner at his cousin house,  who was getting married the other day. So friendly and generous people! <3

So we made it to Stung Treng as planned, finding a good guesthouse to spend a night 🙂

Toto je dalsi pribeh se stopovanim, ktery opravdu stoji za zminku. NOPLANGO jede!

V Pakse jsme cekali celkem dlouho a uz zacali vymyslet nahradni plan, jak jet treba pres Thajsko a podobny kraviny… Chteli jsme ten den dojet pres hranice do nejblizsiho mesta Stung Treng v Kambodze. Po hodinovem cekani nam zastavil sympaticky par a vzal nas az na hranice, prestoze tam urcite neplanovali jet.

Prejit hranice bylo celkem snadne, stacilo jen zaplatit navic 14 dolaru celkem za oba za razitka jak pri vystupu z Laosu,  tak pri vstupu do Kambodzi. Moc pekne tedy… Po prechodu hranic jsme se ocitli v naproste pustine. Jestli si nekde prectete, ze okolo hranic neni moc provoz, tak tomu proste verte 😉 A tak jsme sli… Asi po 2 km nas svezl takovy maly trakturek “cochtong” do prvni vesnice.

Pak jsme sli dal. Dalsich par km nas svezl dalsi “cochtong”,  ale porad zbyvalo 40 km do Stung Treng.  Zacalo se velmi rychle stmivat…  Uz jsme se pomalu smirili s nocni osmihodinovou prochazkou.  Nikde nikdo, jen kolem nas krouzil neodbytny motorkar, ze nas oba vezme (samozrejme za penize). A ten obrovsky balik, co vezl, ze necha v nekterem z tech domu. Predstava jet ale ve trech i s batohy na skutru nic moc teda.

Pak se ale ze tmy ritilo auto, ktere nastesti zastavilo 🙂 Pan umel celkem dobre anglicky a hned nas vzal. Celkem nas jelo v aute dvanact, 6 vevnitr a 6 spolu s nami na korbe. A hned nam hlasil, ze nas zve na veceri k jeho synovci domu, ktery mel svatbu druhy den. Uzasne mili a stedri lide 🙂

A tak jsme nakonec dojeli do planovaneho mista a nasli i slusny hostel na prespani 🙂