Been looking forward to this little crossing after all the tails of corruption and scams, and I don't think we came out too badly. Surprise, surprise the crossing fee was no longer $25 but $35 and Matt decided we pay an extra $5 for the bus organiser to sort our visas for us whilst we were in Don Nagasan, along with half the passengers. So we watched him drive off with our passports wondering when or if we'd see him again whilst we were ferried aboard the plushest bus so far...
The bus was a beaut, half the seats were dripping wet with oily air con water dripping from overhead, my seat also came extra with a broken seat, arse sliding to the floor and back which kept breaking the man's legs behind. There was absolutely no suspension on this thing so we ground along the unmade roads sounding like most of the tyres were flat and constantly with our heads hitting the overhead luggage store. Absolutely priceless and hilarious, sense of humour is THE most important thing with this travelling lark. Our passports arrived at the duly appointed stopping point and half the bus atleast breathed a sigh of relief...the border was in sight. We saved ourselves a good 30 minutes of queuing, then additional form filling and the obligatory $2 fee for immigration and leaving Laos, all in all it only cost us an extra $3 to have everything pre-organised so a good move by Matt. We didn't escape the $1 per person quarantine check which involved taking our temperature but you can't pay enough for that sort of confidence ;)
Waving merrily goodbye to the poor buggers heading on to Pnomh Penh and trapped on the bus for another six hours we had made it to Kratie at 16:30. Our accommodation, hot shower and meal awaited and we were ready for it. Don Khone and the islands were really dusty, not surprisingly as they only have dirt tracks and in the heat everything shrivels to a crisp. Our feet looked like they'd been emersed in cocoa powder and we were leaving some pretty impressive foot prints. The following day and only having one full day in Kratchie we headed off in search of the elusive Irwaddy dolphins and we were not disappointed with our day
The temperature is hot hot hot, after a morning on the river and moped we flop out at our guesthouse drinking water by the gallon and rehydrating for our bus to Phomh Penh in the morning.
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