wake up & smell the coffee

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We had a great motorscooter trip to the Bolavens Plateau. Scooter ran great & road was good & no heavy traffic. Bolavens is a volcanic plateau in Southern central Laos. Pertect climate & soil for coffee growing & I mean to say, we had GREAT coffee along the way. All around the "edges" of the plateau are waterfalls where the waters of idyllic looking rivers tumbles off the volcanic cliffs. We visited 4, each charming in it's own way. One, the Phusavan
was just amazing. A horseshoe shaped mini Niagra set in lush tropical surroundings. We sipped iced coffee and cooled in the spray of the falls during the hottest part of the day.
Other highlights of this visit to Bolavens included a trek on Elephant back, to another waterfall,
& shopping for amazing textiles hand woven by the people of the area. We had to stop the scooter when we passed thru a coffee plantation in bloom. The smell of coffee flowers is something between jasmine and gardinias. Words cannot discribe....Also passed thru another village where the smell of roasting coffee hit us like a hammer.... Of course were bringing some coffee home. We are back in Pakxe now, staying a couple nights in a small guesthouse by the Sekong river, before heading for Thailand monday, to begin our journey home. If all goes well, we will be in Bangkok tuesday AM and leave for Tokyo, Houston and KC by plane on Wednesday evening.

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Photos

First Waterfall
First waterfall we found by accident on the wrong road. It was small, but had a certain charm...

Next waterfall
This place could have been in Hawaii. We got here during the hot part of the day, & cooled off in the mist...

what a way
...to spend a day

We stayed here...
at a riverside bamboo bungaloo in Tad Lo, by the river,...just downstream from another waterfall

view from our porch,
looking down to the temple. They had a festival for the full moon, complete with manually operated ferris wheel. Music all night on loudspeakers...

another waterfall
near where we stayed

cute kids
everywhere we went in Lao, we met friendly cute kids telling us "Sabaidee!"

Bombs
This area was heavily bombed by the Americans. Sometimes bomb casings are used ornamentally...

coffee plantation in bloom!
intoxicating aroma

weaving
We stopped at a weaving co-op & bought several textiles. We were supposed to bargan, but just dident have the heart to, since the asking prices were so low. We bought one from this lady & she was all happy!