1st – 3rd September 2011
Arriving in Pakse, we checked into a hotel, read a bit more about the places we planned to visit in Southern Laos and confirmed a two day route round part of the plateau. Planning done we hit the town in search of food; an odd sweet, spicy, meaty, crispy pancake and then an “aubergine” masala from a local Indian restaurant helped down with some Naan bread. I have to admit that although it was delicious, I did eat it with trepidation, not having eaten any Indian food since leaving India, and the permanent shits, behind.
We had the best night’s sleep that evening, a long bus trip will do that to you I guess!
Up early the next day we rented out a lovely new scooter, with great suspension and tyres with some tread! Luxury. We picked up a tasty meaty salad baguette on the way out of town. It felt good to be back on the road under our own steam again, especially on such a nice little scooter. We visited a couple of waterfalls in the region, the first was really powerful, we had to cross a hanging bridge, which on first inspection, looked like it was made solely from bamboo.
I waited for Djalma to get most of the way across before I joined him, only to see a group of four grown men walking across together without breaking the bridge and falling in. Well, better safe than sorry, right Mum?
We headed back out on the road and round to Tad Lo Waterfall. We drove to the top of the waterfall first, and walked down the steps to a little lookout point. The view out over the countryside was gorgeous, everything was so lush and green.
After eyeing up some rock in the middle of the water Djalma decided to wade out to it, ignoring my pleas for him to stay on dry ground. He clambered out, safe enough, just as he said he would be and took pictures while I stood waiting for him to get back on firm ground so I could stop worrying and just be cross.
Well, he got back in one piece and we climbed the steps and then rode the scooter down round through a small village to see the waterfall from the bottom. At the beginning of the small track round to the fall were a couple of small village boys who designated themselves our guides. They led us down the little dirt track to the pools at the base of the fall, it took a good ten minutes and was really muddy and slippery in some places.
One of the boys was such a good guide he even pointed out a huge cricket oozing green slime from its tale. Now that’s detail that you can’t buy! Slipping and sliding we made it down to the pools, where Djalma stripped to his pants and dived into the cool water.
While I stayed fully clothed and sweating in the sun, the boys splashed about, jumping in from small ledges and swimming round small whirlpools formed by the current. I wasn’t jealous, much. Back out again and fully clothed we headed back and gave them each a little tip, only to see them while we were driving out of the village with cigarettes! I was actually quite shocked, naturally we didn’t give them a light when they asked for one (not that we had one anyway). After a swift admonishment we were off, not far from Tad Lo Village where we stayed for the night.
Riding through the small one street village we checked out several guesthouses before settling for a fairly popular one and dumping our stuff in our room for the night before going out for a walk. We strolled through the little village waving to the friendly little (and big) kids taking pictures of all the animals we saw.
Well, I wanted to, but Djalma thought I was being ridiculous – there were so many chickens (I have seen so many chickens crossing the road now that a chicken crossing the road in itself is a joke – have you seen them? Hysterical!) and piglets and cats and dogs and big pigs. Village life is so interesting!
We retraced our footsteps and stopped at a small restaurant where we had dinner and met a guy staying at the same guest house. During dinner another two guys joined us, an Argentinean and an Estonian, what followed was a rather intense conversation covering politics, economics but mainly philosophy. I caught most of it but around 70% (and I’m being generous to myself) went straight over my head. We went to bed late that night, around 11pm I think, the latest since arriving in Laos.
The next day I had to haul Djalma out of bed, after an egg sandwich for breakfast we were back on the road fairly well rested despite a restless dog scratching outside our little bungalow throughout the night. We revisited the villages waterfall and then set off.
The scenery was breathtaking, we drove up through the hills, through low lying clouds and coffee plantations. Late morning the heavens opened and we got drenched, fortunately we weren’t too far away from our target that day: a café.
We pulled up, dripping wet and hung various wet garments over the backs of chairs before pulling on fleeces to warm our chilled bodies. We ordered two cups of Laos coffee at 10,000 kip each (only about 1.25USD), they were TINY.
But they were good. I wandered round taking some pictures outside, there was a small market with ladies selling fruit and vegetables and children on their way to/from school. Djalma made use of the free wifi – I couldn’t believe the owner got a decent internet connection all the way out there. Having warmed up and dried off, we got our things ready to get going for Pakse, only for it to start raining again. Pulling on our ponchos (rather ineffectual at that) we manned up and faced the elements. It didn’t take too much longer before we were back in Pakse. Djalma dropped me off at the bus station where the remains of a morning market was still in evidence, while he went to collect our bags and drop off the scooter.
While I waited I took some pictures and got stared at, a lot – one lady selling cut mangoes just stood in front of me and then laughed after a couple of minutes, I said hello and smiled but I’m still not sure whether she was being nice or I had a bogie hanging out of my nose… At this point it must be said that at no other point in our trip does a smile go such a long way as in SE Asia. Maybe it’s because smiles here seem extra beautiful, people here just light up when they smile, real big, lovely, friendly smiles, it really makes my day. The children in particular, they will look at you frowning, not quite sure what you are or where you come from, but flash some teeth and wrinkles and they’re beaming like they’re lit from the inside. Heart melting. I love it.
Back to the station, Djalma arrived and we found a sάwngthάew (open sided, roofed, passenger truck) leaving for Champasak, our next stop. We waited for some more passengers. More got in. We waited some more. Even more got in. It was packed already with several households MAJOR food shops in there – not an inch of foot space to be had.
It was quite cozy actually, so packed to the gills we set off, very slowly. Everything was just peachy until it started to rain and by God did it pelt it down, it came through the side hammering out our backs, we had the poncho out and tucked it round us as soon as we could but we weren’t quick enough. The rain kept on pounding down and big cold rain drops slid insistently between frozen buttocks to pool in very inconvenient places. Bizarrely enough the fronts of our bodies where we huddled over, were completely warm and dry, just like our feet. Small blessings! The rain didn’t stop, it didn’t let up for the rest of the journey, which only about three quarters of an hour in total, but it felt like an age. We jumped out the back of the truck and legged it into the nearest guesthouse trying to avoid the lake sized puddles out the front. What a welcome to a town!
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