Waterfalls, dirty bottom and bowling

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As mentioned in my previous blog it was an early start leaving our home stay to head for Pakse.



It was a long trip and the endless padi fields and villages along the bumpy roads lay ahead of us. We only stopped for petrol and comfort beaks. We Arrived on the outskirts of Pakse, but continued on to the waterfalls about 20km outside of Pakse.



We stopped for lunch which took an age to arrive at it was an overpriced sandwich and no fries! So rather disappointing, but the loo facilities were 4* compared to those we had recently encountered lol.



We then headed to the waterfalls which were about a 10 minute walk away. First we visited the top of the waterfalls to take some shots of the river which feeds them and also got close to the edge so we could look down.



Then we took the path down taking photos at the various view points. We then had to descend down some steep steps (they always are lol) and had to hang on to the hand rail and duck under a tree branch growing over the steps ( as modelled by Paddy who is over 6ft tall lol).



At the bottom of the falls were two view point and opportunities for photos with the waterfalls in the back ground. However you had to choose your opportunity quick as there was a large party of Japanese tourists who took forever to take photos with this person and that person and in this pose and that pose, holding up the traffic and then stopping midway down the stairs to see what the photos look like! Grrrrr!



Anyway we got some photos despite these irritations. The steps at the bottom were very slippery and wet due to the large plumes of mist coming from the falls which are pretty high and quite noisy surrounded by lush green vegetation and jungle. Boon our guide did warn us to be careful and that the steps were slippery. So I headed to the farthest photo opportunity spot and hop just as I put my foot down on the last step I took a slip and a slide and landed rather ungraciously on my bottom and back pack lol! But didn't drop my camera so that was a blessing. See photos for the results and my dirty shorts :-) I do have a small bruise coming on my arm but other than that only my dignity and pride is a little bruised lol. I just laughed as I was helped up.



After my shenanigans we headed back up the stairs back our stray bus and then drove to our hotel. When we arrived we just dumped our stuff and headed out for a walk to the local market and market hall. I had a delightful room with a super special turquoise bedspread and curtains - that was a sarcastic super special by the way lol. However it started raining so we headed back, waited 10 minutes for it to pass and went out again. The market and market hall were not very exciting so after half an hour or so we came back out and headed for the river via a temple. We saw that the old bridge had been washed away and they were building a new one.



It started to rain again so we headed back to,the hotel to shower and change ready for out evening out. We had decided to go for an Indian curry at a local restaurant and we also ordered breakfast for the next day as the hotel was too,expensive and we had another early start.



After the curry we headed for the local bowling alley which was about a 15 minute walk from the restaurant. It was very quite with one group teenagers playing and a couple of bowling professionals practice, just looking at their bowling style and scores you could tell they were hard core lol.



We had one game and it was pretty level pegging between me, Paddy and Boon and then in the 7th round I got zero, I crumbled under pressure and it all went down hill from there lol, so I came 3rd. Not my finest moment but it was good fun and we had a laugh and it was an experience bowling in bear feet. After our fun and games we headed back to the hotel ready for our early start.



Xx

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