I was psychologically prepared for the heat. An early start in the cooler morning, regular stops (like I always do), and a midday sleep in a hammock made for a less heat stressed day. Oh. The road surface was better too.
In the hammock
It remained a boring road, though. One for endless podcasts and audio books to help the kilometres pass. Looking at the map, detours on more pleasant roads are unappealing in this heat. I think a nice hammock in the 4000 island area in the far south of Laos is much more appealing. Maybe with an exotic tropical fruit juice in hand.
Water buffalo
arctic-cycler.com 
Dont go to 1000 islands just yet.Don’t miss out on the boleavan plateau loop, from Pakse. Its worth it. Spend a few days in tat lo to relax. And the 50 km slow up pakse to paksong has amazing waterfalls just of the mainroad you dont want to miss. Pakson isn’t much but has accomodation on the right side when you enter it, i missed it first time by.
Tat lo is cool little hippie enclave for a day or two. Amd high altitude makes it a bit cooler. Road till Thousand islands is more of the same as your last days. A bus is very cheap… 1000 islands is nice, but has a lot of the happy pizza’s and happy shake crowd.
Thanks for the tip. Maybe I’ll rethink in Pakse. The thought of going uphill in this heat is a bit daunting, though. 🙂 But first Pakse.. 🙂
Hot is bad enough, hot and humid, yech!