The car had stopped near a taxi driver who spoke a little English. I forgot to mention that earlier. We had arrived in a somewhat luxurious Dolphin vehicle, a model that would be considered high-end in Sri Lanka. It also transported chickens—alive—inside wicker baskets. A charming young couple was seated in the back. The girl seemed completely indifferent, even opening the windows as if she were in a jungle. This reduced the effectiveness of the AC for everyone. To make things worse, the same careless couple had also brought along a chicken coop.
We eventually got off at a four-way junction, which seemed to be the city center of Pakse. As if by divine intervention, there was a 7-Eleven right in the middle of the city. My two friends lit up with excitement as soon as they saw it, having fond memories of using 7-Eleven extensively on a prior trip. Stores like Big C 7-Eleven are common in Thailand, and similar ones can be found in Lao cities, though not in rural areas.
While they explored the 7-Eleven, I headed off to buy a SIM card, leaving them with a meal. The taxi driver had parked near ." He asked where I was headed, and I told him about my mission. Another taxi driver pointed me to a shop in the nearby market where I could buy a SIM card. Despite not speaking a word of English, the Lao woman at the shop managed to provide me with what seemed to be a good SIM card. However, when I inserted it into my phone, it refused to work. Frustrated, I visited another phone repair shop, where they tried tweaking things but couldn’t resolve the issue. The signal kept fluctuating, and I left empty-handed.
Later, I regrouped with my two friends, who had finished their meal. I got SIM cards for both of them as well. My SIM finally worked, but theirs had problems, possibly because I had asked for three SIM cards from three different networks to ensure redundancy in case one failed. Some of these SIMs came with incorrect data packages, so we had to add data separately. We ended up spending 100,000 Lao kip for one SIM card with a data package. A cheerful Lao girl helped us set them up and even enthusiastically took selfies with us, although I no longer have those pictures since they were with my friends.
After wandering around the city for the rest of the day, walking until our legs felt sore, we eventually caught a three-wheeler for 50,000 kip to find accommodation. The place we stayed wasn’t exactly a hotel but was comfortable enough to be called a guesthouse. It didn’t have the fancy amenities of a hotel, but it had AC, clean rooms, and decent bathrooms. The prices were also more affordable compared to Sri Lanka.
Exhausted from our day’s adventures, we slept soundly that night, planning to explore more the next morning. Our destination was Champasak, which was about 60 kilometers from Pakse. We decided to rent motorbikes for the journey. I can’t quite recall whether we got the motorbikes that day or the next, but we ended up with two scooters—one named "Bull" and the other "Wild Buffalo."
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