Advertisement
Mortar vase
We found this used mortar shell being used as a vase in a restaurant in Tat Lo. We had a bit of a treat travelling down from Vientiane to Pakse - we travelled in relative luxury on an overnight VIP bus! It was perfect until they woke us up at 5.30am with blaring loud Laos Karaoke videos - argh!!!! Also, poor Matt didn't get much sleep as an older French man decided to take the seat next to him and was getting a bit too close during the night.........we've never heard Matt get angry at someone before!
Anyway, after breakfast at the local Pakse curry house (very yummy Murtabak), we set off to the local bus station to get the local bus to Tat Lo waterfall in the Bolovan Plateau, famous for it's coffee. Local buses are always entertaining as you never really know what to expect. We're usually the only foreigners and always a point of interest. However, after the twelve hour bus journey from Vientiane we were in need of a cool shower, so you can imagine the sight of the Tat Lo Waterfall was a sight for sore eyes. The Lonely Planet simply describes it as a "20 metre tall waterfall". We would describe it as an oasis of beautiful white water cascading over
limestone rocks, 50 metres wide with various levels of plunge pools and swimming areas. Set either side in the jungle were simple but beautiful bungalows. This is where we stayed. Stef had the best nights of sleep while we stayed there as the sound of the torrents of water plummeting down river was practically mesmerising. Little kids would jump from one pool to the next with their masks and spears looking for tiny fish for their bamboo baskets. These kids have been a sight throughout Laos, so we almost expect to see them whenever we see rivers or waterfalls.
Matt especially wanted to do one thing on his holiday, and that was to ride an elephant. Tat Lo has two resident elephants; two sisters aged 60 years. They appeared to be quite well looked after, and only did three or four rides a day through the jungle forest and rivers. When we went to book our rides with Tim at Tim's Guesthouse, we found out that one of the elephants had run away - apparently she gets upset if she doesn't get a shower before bed time. However, she had returned by the next day and we set off
through the forest for a 90 minute ride. Matt had an elephant to himself while Steve and I shared; not the most comfortable of journeys but the elephants amazed us with their strength and agility walking up hills and through the river! They really were amazing, and we were glad to see that they were well looked after.
We also did a half day trek though local villages. We went with a guide and three dogs who followed us from Tim's - the latter were great trekking companions, and our guide, although he had limited English, was able to communicate the most important information about the villages and the land we walked through. The evenings we spent drinking coffee or ovaltine and played lots of Scrabble - really quite a lovely way to spend a few days on the Plateau. Tim was a great source of information for us too. He has a penchant for jazz but can't get hold of much, so if you head to Tat Lo, be sure to take some for him. He is also setting up a school for kids to learn computer skills, so he also needs educational software of any kind.
After a few days we set off to Pakse to get a siangthiew (large tuk-tuk) to Don Det, one of the islands of Siphandon (AKA 4000 Islands). This is a three hour journey that we discovered many travellers don't like, preferring the air-con of a cramped mini-bus. However, we love these journeys! They're a bit sore on the bottom, but with my trusty yoga mat, we had the best sets on the bus! You certainly meet a few characters on these buses, and every now and then, when the bus stops to let off or pick up, scores of girls or women bustle up to the buss selling anything ranging from fried beetles to fried frogs - simply yummy ;}.
As it was the half way point of Matt's holiday, we decided it was time to spend a couple of days relaxing, which we did on the island of Don Det, in hammocks. In the three days we were there, it was so hot that the only effort we made to get out of the hammocks was to go on a tour of the waterfalls (the largest in South East Asia and pretty spectacular), and to see the Irrawaddy
Dolphins swimming in the Mekong River. We had to travel down to the Cambodian border to see them, and it was all rather exciting. Most people we had met said that they had only seen them from 100m away. We were lucky to see them surfacing out of the water 10-15m away! They were very beautiful - they have stumpy rather than pointy faces, and were about 1.5 metres long. Our boat driver was getting very excited about seeing them - there was only the three of us in our long boat, so we felt quite privileged!
Because we had heard that that the Laos/Cambodia border crossing could be a bit dodgy in terms of scams, and that it would take 2 days by road to get to Siem Reap. we decided to splurge and fly from Pakse to Siem Reap (US$81/each). We left 4000 Islands on another adventurous ride on a siangthiaw up to Pakse for the night before catching our flight on the infamous Laos Airlines.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.127s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 12; qc: 56; dbt: 0.0884s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
anonymous
non-member comment
Thanks!!
I just wanted to stop by and say thanks for visiting my old country. I enjoyed reading your blogs. I am happy that you and your companions had great times and came away with positive stories of Laos. Sabaidee and safe journey!!