Bolaven Plateau (the bike ride)

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After getting to know Cerys we decided that we were going to spend the next 3 days with her riding around the Bolaven Plateau sightseeing. We picked up our bikes in the morning and off we went, after about 5 mins of driving around trying to find a petrol station Phil’s bike decided to run out of petrol, so that left me and Cerys riding aimlessly around Paske trying to find a garage, when we found one we then came across another hurdle, what the hell are we going to put it in!!! They ended up putting about a dollars worth of petrol in a sandwich bag!!! It was so funny, when we got back to Phil we then had to try and get the petrol into the bike without spilling it, if you have ever tried pouring water out of a carrier bag you know the task we were faced with!!!

After all the petrol fiasco we were on our way and after about 40 minutes of riding we were on the plateau, it was beautiful, there were no built up towns or traffic, just the odd 1 or 2 mopeds riding past loaded up to the gunnels with farming equipment or just whole family’s of 4 - 5 people!! The first waterfall we came across was one that goes by the name of Pha Suam, this one was amazing, it was all geared up for tourists though, with a restaurant by the side and one of the most prettiest bridges I think I have ever seen!! I had a bite to eat as I had had a poorly stomach for the past week and skipped brekkie that morning and then got on our way as we had 30km to travel before we arrived at Tad Lo.

When we arrived at Tad Lo everyone was staring at us as we drove through their village, we turned off the main road and went down a dirt track and arrived the waterfall, we found some accommodation close to the waterfall and then had a walk around, some thing to eat and a few beers!!

In the morning we jumped back onto the bikes again and headed towards a place called Sekong, we didn’t plan the route too well as when we got there we realised where we wanted to end up was still miles and miles away so we turned around and headed for the waterfalls called Tad Fane. We arrived there just before the sun was going to go down and went to check in, they wanted $30 for a room for the night, this is the most we have ever come across in South East Asia. So Cerys worked her magic and got the room rates down to $21 so we all paid $7 each. It must have been out of season as there was no one else there, they told us we could choose our bungalow for the night so we sort of chose the penthouse bungalow, the views were amazing. We were overlooking the biggest waterfall in Laos!!

In the morning we headed back to Paske, the drive back wasn’t too bad, but our bums were really sore after 3 days on the bikes. We arrived back in good time, me and Phil took our bikes back and Cerys went off on hers to find a bus station as we had all decided to go down to Don Det, which is part of the 4000 islands in south Laos where the Mekong breaks up.

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