Laos Part II

The overnight bus ride from Vientiane to Pakse turned out to be well worth the money (for whatever reason, bus travel in Laos isn't exactly cheap compared to other parts of SE Asia). We actually got some shut-eye and arrived in Pakse around 6:30 a.m. where we immediately were corralled into another bus that took us another 2 hours south to Ban Nakasang. From here we chartered a longboat to Don Det, one of the islands comprising Si Phan Don (4 Thousand Islands) in the middle of the Mekong. We searched the north part of the island for lodging and decided that the $4.50 bungalows at Mr. B's were a good option. We spent the rest of the day relaxing in our hammocks on the deck of our bungalow.

The next day we decided to take a tour to see if we could spot any of the rare Irrawaddy dolphins and to witness the famous Khone Phapheng waterfall (biggest in SE Asia by volume). First, we took a boat back to Ban Nakasang where we got a minivan ride down to the Cambodian border. From here, we took a longboat 15 minutes up river to a rock right smack in the middle of the Mekong. At first, the six of us in our group were a bit curious as to what exactly we were doing. However, within 10 minutes, sure enough the dolphins showed up. We must have seen at least 10 different dolphins about 50-100 feet from the rock.

It was pretty neat to think that we were witnessing dolphins playing in the middle of this huge river, very far from any ocean waters. It was quite hot during our dolphin-watching, so we all took a refreshing dip in the Mekong. After about 30 minutes, we headed back to the minivan where we headed down to the waterfall.

We were all in awe of the amount of water that moved down the Khone Phapheng waterfall. After about 40 minutes of viewing and photo snapping, we headed back to our island retreat.

We got back to our bungalow in time to watch the sunset over the Mekong. What we didn't expect to find was the local island baker making his late afternoon rounds selling fresh baked pastries, cakes, and pizza breads. Of course we couldn't resist and had to compliment our Beer Laos and sunset with a mini pizza. A great end to a great day.

We woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and decided to rent bikes for the day. Of course after we found out where the bakery was located, we headed straight there for coffee, fruit and cinammon rolls. Mmmmm!!! After breakfast, we decided to explore both Don Det and the island of Don Khon, connected to each other via an old French railway bridge. We biked to another impressive waterfall on Don Khon, cooled off in the Mekong and saw some great little villages along the way. We covered the perimeters of both islands which took up most of the day and by the time we got back we were exhausted.


The next day we decided to leave Don Det, and grabbed a bus back up to Pakse where we caught another bus that took us up into the eastern hills of the Bolaven Plateau, the main coffee growing region of Laos. We arrived in Tadlo a little later than we expected and took refuge in the first guesthouse we came across, Tim's Guesthouse. Unfortunately, our room was invaded by what we think were mature flying termites. Needless to say, the next morning we found a better room at the Sisapueth Guesthouse on the Seset river. We had a great view of the beautiful, hypnotic waterfalls just up river from our place.

After settling in, again, we decided to explore the surrounding area a little bit. However, we decided to go about this upon the back of Munma, an Asian elephant kept at the Tadlo Lodge. We couldn't have chosen a better place for an elephant ride as we crossed rivers, strolled through villages, and witnessed wonderful views high above on Munma:

We spent the next two days relaxing in the quiet town of Tadlo and eating almost every meal at our favorite place, Mama Paps, where $1 will get you the biggest banana pancake that you've ever seen:

We decided it was time to leave Laos and head into Cambodia, not knowing how intricate the journey would be.

First, it was a short tuk-tuk ride to the bus stop in Tadlo; then we caught an early bus from Tadlo back to Pakse, where we then took a taxi to the Thai border at Vang Tao. Once in Thailand, we hopped on a sawngthaew to Phibun, then finally caught another bus to Ubon Ratchatani. It was late, and after utilizing 8 different vehicles that day to get here (a record for us so far), we got dinner, perused the night market, and called it a night. The next morning we woke up early and got a bus to the Thai-Cambodia border at Chong Chom. What we didn't realize is that this border crossing isn't used much by tourists, so our taxi ride to Siem Reap wasn't cheap. However, 3.5 dusty hours later, we made it to Siem Reap ready to tackle Angkor Wat.