Pakse and Champasak

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Day 26
We arrived in Pakse after as good of sleep one could expect on a bus at 6.30am only to be bombarded by 10 people demanding to take us somewhere! We eventually jumped on a tuk tuk (apprehensively) with another 8 people and headed for Sabaidy Guesthouse only to find it full. Not keen on waiting around for people to check out Jez went exploring whilst Carly minded the bags, and we ended up settling at Nasin... Hotel- big stark and generally ugly but relatively cheap. After a quick kip that turned into a couple hours we dragged ourself out to explore. Not thrilled with a fairly drab Pakse we grabbed a bite to eat, hired a moto with too few directions and hit the road. Not 100% sure whether we were on the right road we were relieved when we come across Tad-E-Tu Waterfall (1), after a parking ticket for the bike and the admission fee and wandered in relieved to find a gorgeous waterfall and bridge, only slightly spoilt by a light shower of rain. Back on the bike again and impressed with Jez's new bike riding skills given the multitudes of massive pot holes, mud slides and sand.
Next stop Tham champy waterfall (2), first sign- Easy path 2nd sign- Danger Step ladder! Naturally we took the shorter but trickier option and arrived at a beautiful waterfall and then managed to make our way behind it without falling in!!
Still in search of the Tad Fane Waterfall we hit the road again and found it directly opposite. It was even better then what they had described! In search of the perfect photo given we've clearly become pro photographers now we headed down this slippery rough track, still yet to see the bottom we continued on until we realised any further and we weren't coming back particularly as we were in thongs (flip flops for the POMs)!
Still not content with our photo's Jez climbed a tree for a few more snaps much to the amusement of some nearby locals.
Thinking we still had plenty of time before the infamous storm brewing we headed for Tad Yuenang Waterfall (4). We found, saw, took a quick couple shots and dipped (quick paddle- so not to waste the opportunity despite being far from sunny) and jumped back on the bike. Only to run head on into the rain, with the cover of one towel it made our 38km journey seem just a little longer but by the time be reached Pakse it was all over! We enjoyed some prawns and fish for dinner at the Floating Deck restaurant on the Mekong River.

Day 27- Champasak
Up bright and early we headed for market supposably along side the bus station, whilst we found the market the bus station was a little harder to come by, so we accepted the tuk tuk to Ban Muang for $5 each. From here we had to catch the ferry across to Champasak for other $2 each, which doesn't leave until its full and full it is 6 vehicals, 8 motos, and a couple strays like ourselves and it slowly mananders across.
We accepted a tuk tuk to Vong Paseud Guesthouse we turned out to be nice and had an great balcony overlooking the Mekong (No were not sick of the Mekong... yet).
With only one day we had little time to waste so we hired so bikes and set off for Wat Phu. By now we should have realised everything is further then they say, but needless to say we still stopped and asked for directions. We finally arrived at the ruins of Wat Phu and the number of stairs we had to climb. We sheltered from the rain beneath the mango trees before checking out the spectacular views and wandered around the ruins amazed at after all this time they still resembled buildings.
We made our way down with just the one slip... and rode back for some chilling in the hammocks, and pancakes.
We set out to the only restaurant (we's seen) for tea with Alice who we keep bumping into along the way. They seemed a little disappointed at having to serve us as we were a little disappointed at what they served us.
So we went back to the guesthouse for a few games of Rummy with Alice and some more awesome pancakes to make up for dinner.

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Photos

Water Number 3 Tad Fan
150 meter drop