Sabaideee!
well well, we started our bike ride from Pakse to the
Bolaven Plateau early Sunday morning...well not really that early
because the time it took for the indian pancakes and samosa's to arrive
it was really mid morning, then if you count the extra 15 or so km's in
the wrong direction on the wrong highway then i guess you could say we
actually left around lunch time. aaah, but with our belly's full and
the mountains in view, and then eventually being on the correct road,
all was looking sweet. We didn't get very far I must admit, we cycled
45km's or so, at a constant uphill gradient, and ended up talking to a
young Laotian guy for awhile...perfect english i might add...by this
time it was mid afternoon. so we cycled a few more km's came to the
MOST awesssuuuuuum waterfall i have ever seen. There were actually 2
falls, both approximately 150metres high - we couldn't see the bottom!
- and even when we clambered down (aux climbed, i clambered...fell 3
times and came back looking like a muddy monster from the deep, aaah)
we could barely see the river. very impressive. will post photos soon.
we ended up staying at the falls at a little resort bugalow type
thingee. cost more than most of our accommodation in asia, but by
western standards was still pretty cheap, and we figured it was our
2month anniversary of travel so why not :) was nice to stay somewhere
really clean, and not be afraid about taking your jandals off in the
bathroom. the area was so beautiful, lush green forest, birds singing,
cicadas humming, and the falls in the background. and the monsoonal
rains came in around 5ish, pure bliss. oh yea and there was a frog in
our bathroom...very cool. would have loved to stay longer, but
accommodation at that price would cut our trip in 2. so we ventured on
to a little spot we had heard about called Tad Lo. cycled 90 or so kms
across more mountains. the whole upper half of the plateau is covered
in coffee plantations, very nice! most of these plantations were set up
by the french, but they pulled out during the 60s so the laotians have
kept up the hard yakka. about 90% of the coffee in laos comes from this
area. part of the ride was down a muddy dirt road, so much fun as it
was all down hill :)
arrived in Tad Lo late afternoon. we had heard about a cool
place to stay at $2US a night. found the infamous pad, run by a
extremely funny local lady named Pap. The place was extremely
extremely basic, pretty much just 4 walls made out of flax and bamboo,
a bed, and a shared bathroom made out of the same materials. quite a
change from the previous nights accommodation at 1 tenth of the price
:) but the bungalow came complete with the usual veranda and hammock.
we were pretty much in the middle of the village, by this i mean our
neighbours were other villagers, pigs, cows, chickens, lizards,
spiders, screaming children, and 1 or 2 other backpackers who had also
ventured off the usual backpacker trail. we ended up staying 3 days,
reading books, eating, drinking coffee, and lazing around in hammocks
and checking out the falls. lotsa fun. we woke up every morning to cows
mooooing under our room, quite frightful actually. one morning Pap told
us her life story...very very poor english, so it involved numerous
amounts of hand gestures, facial expressions, and our own
imaginations. she ended up sitting us down the next morning, and put
white cotton friendship bracellets on us. apparently the Laotian people
wear them for good luck, the monks bless them somehow, and then whoever
puts the bracelet on you says a little chant/prayer thing wishing you
good luck and ties it on for ya. very cool. anyhoo these bands are
meant to ward off bad spirits and bring us extremely good luck (sok dee
in Laos) and Pap reckons it will bring her more customers....haha. it
probably will too as we will be recommending it to other people we meet
along the way. these Laotian village women are vigorous entrepreneurs,
maybe Barry Trump should put one of 'em on his show.
So we left Tad Lo this morning, with slightly heavy hearts :(
and cycled an undulating road all the way back to Pakse where i now
sit. fun ride, lots of lush forest once again, but the plantations were
all banana, papayas and a shit load of pineapples. aux bought one and
road with it on his handle bars until some kid yelled out hello and
waved, and aux did the same thing...mr. pineapple went rolling down the
hill and ended up with a puncture wound. he's still edible i believe,
if a little less juicy.
anyways come to the south of Laos! we are loving it :)
Lissaaaaa
