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Oh my god, we step out of the minibus after having had a great catch up with some really great English girls to be faced with Ellie and Ade the guys we met in India and traveled with for 2 weeks in China. So random, after many squeals of delight and much jumping up and down we spent the next few hours (5) catching up on each other escapades and laughing at the fact that they had 'done' Cambodia in 5days!!!!!
Unfortunately they were heading off to Vientiane and we were heading out the following day to Tat Lo so maybe we will meet in Thailand?!!
Didn't get swindled by the the tuk tuk driver and didn't have to pay a different price at the bus station. Hurrah!! 25'000 kip to Tat LO, come on!! Actually we were so sick of Pakse that I was searching the chalk boards for any destination we could afford to visit if Tat Lo was going to work out too much. In the end all was well and the only thing that slowed us down was the constant stops (local buses , can't be helped) and the fact that the guy who was
loading all the luggage and other fodder into the bus actually fell off the roof and landed on his head. This looked bad for him, the black eye and blood wasn't matching his pink nail varnish (honestly) and worse for us when we had to detour to take him to the local sanitarium, I kid ye not. Mysteriously he didn't return and we acquired and other lithe yet strong young man to throw our bags off into the dirt when we had finally reached our destination 3hours later.
We stayed at a local farmers place, he had spare stilt houses that he had converted for guests and with a shared bathroom in the garden it was a bargain at 20,000 kip per room. Loved it, but still wanted to kill the cockeral and maybe just one of the kids who woke us up screeching whoop whoop whoop whoop, blah, blah. Oh well !!!!!
Well Tad Lo(as the locals call it), means waterfalls out here, and there were 3 to view. The first afternoon we were there, after a lunch of, Sardine Baguette, banana shake, coke and water, we searched out the first waterfall, which was 50 meters away!!!
It was wide and had a good stream of water, it was pretty with green trees around it and small huts and a big Wat nearby. As the sun came down, we decided to paddle in the water and watch the locals clean their washing and themselves(no nudity, thank god!) , they bathe in their sarongs. Dinner that night, was more local food, with some fellow Brits, Chris and Wendy, a young Canadian Gerit and George and Tenzin, we were the only foreigners in town and cleared the lady out of several fundamental ingredients, as we ate so much!!! The banana pancake with honey was so good, that Dan had another one the following night and so did I, the portions were huge and so cheap.
Next morning, Dan and I decided to walk 10km to the "spectacular waterfall" , we left at 10am, as we knew by 12 it would be sunny and bloody hot!!! The walk was upwards, upwards and upwards, we passed 3 villages on the way, all of them were basic huts on stilts, but most houses had electricity cables and the usual huge satelite dishes. One village was beautiful, and they had roses, flowers
and one house had designer hedges!!! and all the villlagers kept saying "sabadee"meaning hello and asking us to try fruit. They are so friendly, all the children playing, enjoying themselves in a community atmosphere, surely something we could all learn in England!!!!!!
When we eventually reached the waterfall, it was dry,due to a local dam, which had dried it up, bar a trickle. We walked across the top of the waterfall, about 30 metres, the views were stunning looking out to the villages below and a few mountains in the distance, and if the waterfalls had been flowing, then yes it would have been spectacular!!!!! The dam was built to create hydro electricity for the villages, so we cant' grumble!!! We walked back, and by the time we returned to Tad Lo(2pm), it was boiling!!! Lunch, and yes Dan devoured another Sardine Baguette!!!! and several shakes, thank god its cheap here.
After lunch, we walked to the middle waterfall, 200m away, and I climbed down several steep ladders to catch better views, Dan chickened out due to his dodgy flip flops and the fact the bamboo ladders were wobbly!!!!
With sunset approaching, it was time to bathe again
near this waterfall, we were lucky enough to view 2 local elephants bathed by their masters and scared by the family Otter!!! The sunset was stunning again, orange in colour and surrounded by green trees, huts and glistening water.
That night was party night, Gerit showed us some cool card tricks and then we played drinking games, and all of us were pissed by 9.30pm, bed was calling, as tomorrow was another early start back to Pakse and our overnight bus to Bangkok, and another country on our Asia tour.
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