Motorbike excursion to the Bolaven Plateau
Trip Start
Jan 17, 2010
1
29
40
Trip End
Jul 17, 2010
Where I stayed
Bolaven Plateau
Pakse, Champasak, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Thursday, May 27, 2010
It started when we got to Laos. With plenty of time to choose a fine lodging (and with no-one else staying on the Island) we made a mess of it on Don Khon by picking the one bungalow - albeit with a fine view - to which massive 7am-start renovations were being performed. We followed this up with our first overnight stay here in Pakse at pretty much the first place we came to - Kanan likened it to Alcatraz. We picked a beautiful spot on our first overnight stay on the Bolaven Plateau (I think we're increasingly seduced by views), what we failed to notice, however, was the rancid stench of the village defecation pool right behind our bathroom. It's frightening how quickly one becomes accustomed to such smells, but then again I suppose that Kanan did marry me after all. We spent two nights there as well without asking for a room change. Last night, in the deserted, middle-of-nowhere wild-west-esque town of Paksong, on a street where everything had closed at 8pm, we picked the only room in an otherwise empty hotel which backed on to a makeshift booming-bass village Karaoke party. On first sight, earlier in the evening, I had thought the building was a cowshed. Anyway, here's hoping it all catches up with us tonight and we rock up after 10 peaceful hours kip in Vientiane fully refreshed. Somehow I doubt the driver and his boom-box CD player will oblige.
We hired a motorbike from the Lankham hotel in Pakse four days ago, reluctantly parting with a passport by way of a deposit, took a number of snaps of the bike to evidence the condition we hired it in and set off on the long and winding road to Tat Lo, taking in some beautiful waterfalls along the way. Having covered about 90 kilometers we pulled up at the picturesque Tat Lo Waterfall and neighbouring village with a burgeoning backpacker infrastructure - also the site of the "stenchalo". Having decided to stay a day in Tat Lo and give our aching backsides a bit of a blow, we booked a trip on an elephant to see the best of the waterfall. It's an experience that comes highly recommended as we trudge our way through seemingly unpassable jungle, down muddy banks and plunged into fast flowing water, passing through a local village as we went where I think the children were more intrigues by me than the elephant. A hundred mosquito bites between us were the price we had to pay - at least we drew a bit of attention away from the fly-pestered elephant.
After more treks and waterfalls we set off from Tat Lo with the intention of travelling through the mountains to Sekong. About 60km in we faced a crossroads and with thick can't-see-your-own-hands mist hanging over the road to Sekong we picked the stunningly scenic but slightly less adventurous road to Paksong, less misty and a bit closer on the road back to Pakse (the start and finish of our loop). The Plateau itself is a lush green, mountainous, National Protected area - still sadly afflicted by the Lao curse of land mines and unexploded bombs. Much of the greenery is coffee - the Bolaven Plateau grows some of the finest, most expensive coffee beans in the world - and we spent an hour or so chatting to a dutch expert in his coffee shop. Things were going swimmingly until he started extolling the virtues of his family coffee (a new family you understand, he'd married a Lao who already had one for him) and tried to sell us some. Nothing wrong in this at all, except that we had just bought some direct from a lady in a hut up the road for about a tenth of the price. Upon discovering this he turned up his nose and told us
we'd purchased drinking chocolate. Let's see.
This morning we set of once more in a post-Karaoke haze and took the gorgeous road back to Pakse, stopping for me to swim at another waterfall (the name escapes me) along the way. It's been one of the highlights of our trip, and has enabled us to meet more of the Laos people, who have been a real delight (when they're not asleep that is), and terrifically tolerant of our strange eating habits. So tomorrow, with luck, we'll awake in Vientiane, the Laos capital, where we plan to stay a few days before heading on and up to Luang Prabang.
