Pakse - 10/06-12/06

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Once again we gained another group member in the tuk tuk into town from the bus station, Daniel from Switzerland. We all headed to the no.1 trip advisor ranked restaurant and ordered 5 chicken sandwiches and 5 beers.. sometimes you need a treat! We checked into DownTown Hostel run by an English guy and chose a corner spot in a dorm room for the night.

The next day we set out to hire mopeds (standard) but for half the price we were offered semi-automatic. After a few laps round the streets by the hire shop jack had got to grips with the bike and so we set off with everyone to visit the waterfalls and coffee plantation. The gear changes were not as smooth life on the moped but the bike was much better than anything we had before. The road was not as scenic as we'd been used to but the waterfalls were the most impressive to date. The first was called ... we spent time watching the huge fall and James went down for a closer inspection and got soaked from the spray. We then trekked through a "path" it was debatable if anyone else had attempted it in the last few months but was a real The next day we set out to hire mopeds (standard) but for half the price we were offered semi-automatic. After a few laps round the streets by the hire shop jack had got to grips with the bike and so we set off with everyone to visit the waterfalls and coffee plantation. The gear changes were not as smooth life on the moped but the bike was much better than anything we had before. The road was not as scenic as we'd been used to but the waterfalls were the most impressive to date. The first was called ... we spent time watching the huge fall and James went down for a closer inspection and got soaked from the spray. We then trekked through a "path" it was debatable if anyone else had attempted it in the last few months but was a real adventure.it was the densest jungle we had been through and we saw furry caterpillars hanging from threads, an orb web spider along with plenty of other critters, the majority of which ended up tangled in chars hair. The path was so muddy and slippery so the only possible way to climb through was by hanging on the vines and grabbing any possible branch or tree. We finally made it to the "view point" as it maybe was at some stage in its life. It was precariously positioned right at the point of the second waterfalls drop and we thought it best to observe this from a safe distance before returning back along the path. We obviously made time for a group Tarzan photo along the way. We got back on the bikes and headed round to the view point for the second waterfall and were able to see the place we had trekked to, it looked bloody high from the other side. This was easily the most impressive fall we'd ever seen. The jungle was thick and dense with mountains in the background and several rivers merged just before a 10000metre drop straight down into the pool below. We watched as the spray built up like smoke covering almost all of the view before dying down again revealing the fall once more. So beautiful!!! Next stop was the coffee plantation and again we were faced with the problems of rainy season and dirt tracks despite a few minutes of skillful driving from jack we soon slipped sideways straight into a muddy puddle. The track was another kilometre or so and we decided a beer watching the sunset would trump a cup of coffee up a dirt track anyway so headed back to Pakse with jorgen. When we returned the bike Char decided that she'd like some practice as we may need to get 2 bikes in the future if we decided to do any long rides for several days. After a few bumpy gear changes and wobbly moments Jack plucked up the courage to get on the back - luckily no accidents but Char decided that more practice is needed before she trusts herself on Asian roads! We met everyone for drinks that night and made plans to head to 4000 island a day after them, we needed a day on our own to sort out plans for Cambodia and Vietnam!

The planning day consisted of sitting in a beautifully air conditioned coffee/brunch cafe where we had breakfast and continued to stay for around 5 hours! We tried their coffee, shakes, cookies and it was all faultless. There seemed to be a school within the set up where they taught the locals English and to cook so our money was well placed. It was a perfect spot and got loads done, including looking into doing some volunteering in Vietnam when we get there.

The rest of the afternoon we explored the markets and had a bite to eat ready for our short bus trip to Si Phan Don (4000 islands) the next morning.

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