This made my day...

After a free ride of 30km in the back of a pickup truck full of rice back to the Pakse we hit the southern bus station. Like most bus stations in SE Asia, they're away from the actual town themselves so that the thriving tuk-tuk and sawngthaew industry can make a few bucks (Becca disagrees with me on this but this is my blog entry damnit).

Once you get off a vehicle, the tuk-tuk jump on you as per usual. Where are you going, mister? We mention Pakse and the person quotes us 25% higher than we're supposed to pay. We tell them the number we're supposed to pay and they just laugh at us. During our time here we've found that our best method of negotiation is to name a price and then just wait. Don't say anything. They keep coming back at us: "(high amount), you go now yes!" and we just keep shaking our head.

Just when we think this might actually turn into a proper stalemate, the negotiator of the bunch runs up to us says "(our price), you go now!" We agree and while we're throwing our stuff in, what do we hear?

The unforgettable sounds of a rival tuk-tuk sidling up to us and saying those words I'll have ingrained in my brain long after this trip:

"Tuk-tuk?"

Brian