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Published: February 2nd 2008
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A broken down bus, a train, a tuk-tuk, a school bus, a double-decker pick-up truck, and van later, we had arrived in Laos. The border crossing was a breeze contrary to our worst fears.
We arrived in a little sleepy Laos town called Pakse in the evening and were greeted by 15 or so giggling children yelling “Sabaidy”, which is the Lao word for hello. With our guards way up from our experiences in Bangkok, we were a bit apprehensive, but when we realized that the children were just interested in us, it was all very charming. The kids ran around, some doing cartwheels, asking Chris to flex his muscles and giving me little kisses on my hand. We knew right away that Laos was going to be different than Bangkok.
Pakse is a small town situated where the Mekong River and the Sedone River converge. We decided to spend the next couple of days wandering around Pakse enjoying the laid back feel of the city before moving on. One afternoon we watched fisherman casting round nets by hand into the Mekong River, as we sat above in a riverside restaurant enjoying huge bottles of ‘Beerlao’.
My favourite
thing about Pakse, and as we were to find out, all of Laos, are the people. They seem to be rather traditional, but they are also very warm and friendly. Each and every child will wave and yell out “Sa-bah-deeeeee” when we walk by. The kids also seem so much happier than those back home. We spent a few evenings watching all of the neighborhood kids playing together without adult supervision. They were not getting into any trouble - just being kids - playing, riding bikes, laughing and carrying on.
The people were no different in Tad Lo, an idealic little village in the Boloven Plateau. We took a long, hot, bumpy, jam-packed bus up to Tad Lo to spend a few days among the ethnically distinct villages in this area. We arrived in Tad Lo at sunset and with the peachy light, everything was a beautiful picture; old ladies with red stained teeth from chewing on betel leaves, children bathing in the river, thatched huts and Buddhist monks walking through the temple complex. As we walked down the road to our guesthouse we ran into countless happy naked children who waved and yelled out the usual “Sa-bah-deeeee”. Chris
Tadlo at Sunset
The people of Tadlo bathe in the river at the end of each day and I were absolutely giddy!
Tad Lo is a very small, poor village at the base of 2 beautiful waterfalls. We spent our time chilling out by the river, climbing up the falls and hiking to the smaller villages nearby. Some of the villages were very poor and in need of medical supplies and such. The people were all very welcoming and seemed excited to see Westerners. We took lots of pictures of screaming excited kids and it was lots of fun to be able to turn our digital camera around to instantly show them the picture that we had taken. The kids loved it as much as we did.
We spent our evenings chatting with other travelers from around the world, eating food and drinking beer. The food in Tad Lo was nice, albeit a bit bland. This was a treat, though, because we had a little incident a few nights prior in Pakse. We went for noodle soup for dinner one night. Chris ordered the pork soup and I ordered the chicken. At one point I noticed that Chris had spit some food out onto his hand and then put it on the table - a
The Claw
Chris found this and one other in his soup. Check the size comparison. Mmmmm. very uncharacteristic move, so I was alarmed. When I pushed Chris to tell me what was wrong, he said in a low voice, “I’m eating cat”. I asked him how he knew it was cat, which is when he moved his hand to reveal two … claws. We studied them at great length to try to determine which animal they might be from. Chris asked the woman cooking what they were and she reached over and grabbed a chicken foot. They seemed awfully big to be chicken claws, but we’ve decided that that’s what they are … yes, chicken claws. We’ll just keep saying that over and over. Anyway, after that episode, we were happy to be eating good, claw-free, mainly vegetarian, food in Tad Lo.
The highlights of the few days we spent in Tad Lo have to be the elephant ride across the river, watching the full moon rise over the Buddhist Temple, and for Chris, taking a shower at 6:30 a.m. under the waterfall just as the sun rose over the trees.
With some hesitation we hopped on the back of a motorcycle headed for the main road where we flagged down a bus to
Pakse. One night here and we’re off tomorrow to the Four Thousand Islands in the far south of Laos for more R&R and hopefully good food.
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