The ViP overnight Bus King journey from Vientiane south to Pakse, in Southern Laos was both a challenge and a new adventure.
The early morn arrival provided the opportunity for a short visit in the area. There just happened to be a silk weaving village nearby called Ban Saphai, only 15 kilometers away. So we found a driver and a van and were on our way.
It was a prosperous village of attractive homes with large weaving looms fully dressed and in full production. The 5 women weavers I talked with were doing fairly simple ikat designs of two colors with warps of synthetic yarns and their boats that carried the yarns for the weft combined purchased chinese silk and synthetic yarn. They wove about 1 1/2 meters a day receiving about 80,000 kip or $10 for each piece and generally all their work was contracted.
As we left town, we stopped at a small village market and there I found many weaving supplies which included the ikat dyed yarns for the village ikat designs. So these women buy most of supplies prepared for them! No more tie-dyeing the threads!
Back into Pakse, we visited the market and museum, then boarded the jumbo tuk tuk (light truck with side panels) and set off in a southernly direction.
Three hours later we arrived at the crossing to Four Thousand Islands in the most southern part of Laos in the Mekong River. The ferry was a veritable antique operation, but it did manage to carry us across the mighty Mekong.
We were dropped off a block from our Pons guesthouse with a comfortable room and veranda. The mattress was good and hard! We settled in with a grand shower, dinner on the peaceful riverside of fish steamed in coconut milk with steamed vegetables, laolao (the local whiskey) cocktails and a game of gin with a new deck of cards.
There are large groups of Italians and Spanish (Catalan) staying in our area. Always fun to share stories.
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