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Start Location:Taat Hua Khon
End Location:Pakse, Again
Distance:92km
We woke up to the sound of the waterfall in the near distance and a cockerel making as much noise as it could right underneath the flimsy bamboo flooring beaneath our bed. With the bike tyre fully replaced we decided to take the `unsealed road´ back to Pakse is what would be a pretty long day of biking/scootering. The route we had chosen was said to be one of the most beautiful and rural in Laos, passing through thick forest and tiny villages - the tyre really had to stay in one piece today or we were going to be walking 40 odd km with a bike in tow...
Going down the bumpy access path from the hut to the village we ended up stopping off for a bowl of pho, all made freshly by one of the local ladies operating out of small bamboo restaurant and probably one of the nicest we had in our entire time in Laos. If we haven`t mentioned these before we should have as they are often the only choice at breakfast and lunch in many places. The pho involves a clear beef or chicken stock being poured, boiling hot, over a handful of thin, clear rice noodles in a bowl. As the heat finishes off the cooking through of the noodles a handful of cooked chicken (or thinly sliced raw beef which also cooks in the scorching water) is added along with some salt, pepper and often a handful of beansprouts. This is served with a huge plate on the side which is stacked full with raw green beans, beansprouts, thai basil, mint leaves, corriander and any other local herbs of choice. When you get your bowl you add the fresh leaves however you like it and normally a couple of chillies too. This results in a refreshing, fresh bowl of noodle soup that you tackle with chopsticks in one hand and a spoon in the other. It can be great, it can be terrible but this one was fantastic other than the 2cm by 2cm spongy and jelly-like brownish cubes that had been scattered into the stock by the lady at the counter. We ate them up but they were a little grainy and didn´t have much flavour - we later found out it was a Laos speciality of congealed blood but given black pudding is petty much the same idea I´ll let them off...
Anyway, back on the road we drove a few miles until we reached the turn off we were looking for - a thin, dusty and orangey-red track leading into the deep green of the forest. After about 30 minutes more we were really in deep jungle, only the occasional hut nestling back in the trees gave away the existence of a few people living here. Shortly after the huts we saw a local with a very long barelled rifle slung over his shoulder cross the path ahead, he stopped, he turned towards us, I gulped and slowed down...he looked at us and gave us a big grin and a saibady before getting on his way with the brace of birds he had clearly been hunting swinging at his side.
As we carried on it became pretty clear that the road wasn´t in great nick - we´d been told it was unaccessible in the winter but in summer, they said, it was fine. In reality it was getting down to a couple of metres wide in places and was strewn with big boulders and rain channels - not the ideal road for a 110cc scooter carrying 2 people. As we approached the first waterfall on our stop off list, we heard another engine coming down the path and it turned out to be a Dutch bloke we have met the evening before who slowed to a halt next to our little blue scooter on his big, spring loaded supension honda dirtbike.
I did not feel like a real man.
He was more than a little surprised to find we had made it so far and gave us the lowdown on the track ahead. Ill keep the rest of this short but the track went on a long way, the uphills weaved between and over rocks and potholes and the downhills had to be taken so carefully to avoid the bike skidding on the dusty and rocky path...difficult but fun and strangely a little like skiing in the type of balance it needed. The good and important news is that we made it to the Bolevean Plateu in one piece and took a well deserved coffee break.
The Bolevean Plateu is a famous coffee growing area, well famous in Laos, so we stopped off at our 3rd waterfall of the day to not only see the waterfall but also to look through a coffee plantation, nice enough, the waterfall was stunning as its spray created a permenant rainbow around itself and we got to taste the fresh coffee beans before the final run back to town. Pakse that is. You cant avoid the b*****y place.
Motorbiking over and done with, insurance claim uneccessary we decided to get out of Pakse ASAP and jump on a bus to the 4000 islands, an area where the Mekong opens up to one of its widest points creating lots of small islands, some lived on, others just clumps of trees.
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