Hi All,
As we sat down outside the motorbike rental shop, with the other 20 backpackers, we felt like we were back at school. The guy took the register and ticked us off. He gave a very in depth hour long talk about the Bolaven Plateau; telling us where we could stop off on the 4 day motorbike loop and giving advise on the best waterfalls to visit. After the talk we handed in our passports as a deposit for the bike and went to bed excited (and slightly apprehensive in Danielle’s case) to begin the following morning.
Day 1:
Ross was pleased that we were able to rent a semi automatic motorbike - a cross between the scooters we have been renting and an actual motorcycle which he much prefers. We set off from the town of Paske and headed towards the countryside. On the way, we passed several settlements, one a blacksmiths village so of course Ross had to pull over to have a look at the array of tools and knives - thankfully not purchasing any more to add to his growing collection of kitchen knives. We stopped for an iced coffee, chilling in bamboo hammocks, before a tour of a local coffee plantation. The owner explained the difference between the types of plants and the flavours they produce (Arabica, Robusta and Liberica ) as well as showing us the multitude of fruit trees planted in the orchard to give the coffee trees much needed shade. He told us how the coffee beans turn from unripe green to a deep red when they are ready to picked. Once their outer husk has been removed, they are left to dry in the sun until the second husk can be removed. At this point, the bean is ready for roasting and turns into the dark brown/black coffee bean we are familiar with. The best quality is processed by hand on the farm and sold directly in small batches to tourists, whilst the bulk is sold to larger corporations, in this case the Nescafe factory a few miles away.
By mid afternoon we had arrived at the little hamlet of Tad Lo - named after the impressive waterfall it is home to (tad meaning waterfall in Lao). We found a cute guest house run by a local family which had cosy wooden bungalows with comfy king sized beds. We left the motorbike and our stuff there so we could walk to Tad Lo and Tad Hang waterfalls. Both were beautiful and portrayed Laos exactly how we had pictured. By the time we were heading home, many local teenagers had descended on the pools at the bottom of the falls - not too dissimilar to when we used to play out in the park after school. The older of the boys were jumping off the top of the waterfall while the girls were posing for selfies in the water (all fully clothed in their school uniforms). As the evening drew in, ladies came to wash their clothes, boys were bathing and men fishing.
That evening we joined in with the family dinner at the guesthouse. We helped chop fruit and veg while other guests made spring rolls and picked fresh mint leaves. The tables was laid for 20 people and a huge collection of dishes brought out. Among our feast was: sticky rice, chicken coconut curry, beef larp (traditional stir fried minced meat dish) and fried spring rolls. The majority of the guests were French but far from being able to join in their conversation, we realised just how little French we learnt at school as we could only understand the occasional word. As usual, they all spoke good English though so we shared lots of travel stories and tips over dinner.
Day 2:
After breakfast we were back on the road. It seems there is no minimum age required to drive a motorbike here as boys as young as 10 or 11 whizzed passed us. Passing a secondary school leaving for lunch, it seemed every pupil got home via motorbike - the school field was easily decked out with 100 of them! However, this surprised us as the price of purchasing a motorbike here is around £1,500 which is a huge amount of money for people in what is a relatively poor country.
By lunchtime, we had reached the minority village of Kok Phoung Tai where many of the elders have never left. We were greeted by Mr Hook who gave us an incredibly in depth tour of his coffee plantation, medicinal herb garden and village square. Hearing how the medicinal herbs are used opposed to western medicine was interesting but learning that many villages refuse to visit doctors or the hospital was hard to get our head around. Instead, when unwell, they seek the help of the village shaman or guru; curing illness through herbal remedies and ridding of evil spirits inside the body through cleansing the soul. Each of these services come at a price; the former a sacrificed chicken and sack of rice and the later a sacrificed cow, small pig, chicken and obligatory sack of rice!
For us, the most shocking part of the tour was finding out that girls are to get married at as young as 8 and to have had their first child by around 13. Men can have many wives and are able to marry these very young girls. Our guide explained how his 9 year old niece is married to a 53 year old man; while remaining open minded for the rest of the traditional customs, this we just couldn’t respect. Furthermore, when giving birth, women must leave the village and enter the grave yard forest (where women who died during child birth are buried) as to not curse the house with the blood of child birth. They must then remain in the forest for three days after the birth. When returning to the village, they must walk over hot coals to rid any evil spirits. Villagers of all ages, some as young as 3, could be seen smoking a blend of tabaco and sugar cane using a bamboo bong.
That evening when the other tourists from the tour had left, it was just us with Mr Hook and his family - all 35 of them who live in the same house! Like in other cultures, the sons remain living with their parents while the daughters move out to live with their husband's family. The only difference here is that with his mother and 4 step mothers (as his father has 5 wives) the number of people living under one roof soon adds up! Dinner time was a surreal experience. Inside one of the rooms was three separate ‘kitchens’ - each of these was a fire with a bubbling pot over the top. Family members of all ages sat around on the floor taking fistfuls of sticky rice and dipping it in a sticky snail soup. We were served a really tasty vegetable dish with rice and peanut sauce which we ate with some of the younger generation, all wanting to practice their English. Just when we thought dinner was over, Mr Hook announced that we were going cricket hunting. This consisted of using a head torch to catch crickets with our hands and then placing them in a bottle. We soaked them, removed their insides and then fried them with chilli and garlic on an open fire. To our surprise they were actually quite moreish! The whole experience is certainly something we won't ever forget!
Day 3:
We woke up with an incredible view of the Bolaven Plateau from our little wooden house. The villagers had long been awake and were walking to work in the coffee fields. We had our breakfast with Mrs Hook while she roasted coffee beans over an open fire.
Ross enjoyed the ride to our next stop as we ventured off road onto rocky, dusty dirt tracks. During the day we stopped at Tad Faek waterfall before arriving in the tiny hamlet of Tayicsua by the afternoon. A two hour trek through bamboo forest took us to beautiful waterfalls in the surrounding countryside. At the last of the falls, we jumped in for a swim in the chilly water and then laid like lizards on a rock in the sun to dry off as we had forgotten our towels.
Day 4:
We awoke to yet another beautiful view from our wooden bungalow; the sight of roads and cars from our bedroom windows at home just doesn’t quite compare. Stopping at the first waterfall, we ordered fried rice for breakfast. We made good time on the road and reached Tad Yuang, Tad Fane and Tad Champi by lunchtime. Tad Yuang washed over a few steps before falling 30 metres into the pool below while Tad Fane was huge at around 90 metres tall. Our favourite was the smallest of the three, Tad Champi, which had a large overhang so we could walk behind the waterfall. Danielle attempted to swim into it from the shore but the strength of the water made it impossible to get in. Instead we decided to walk round bare foot in our swimwear so we could swim in through the the parting water from behind.
Between visiting waterfalls, we stopped at a tiny roadside ‘cafe’ where we had some of the best coffee of our travels. We returned for a second cup and tried to communicate with the lady, who spoke no English, that we wanted to know the brand so we could buy some. After a few minutes of nodding back and forward she showed us her coffee tree where it was grown so we thought that was that and we wouldn’t be able to buy any but then she gestured towards her house and went running off. 5 minutes later, she returned with a freshly ground packet for us to buy!
Overall we had an amazing few days visiting all the incredible waterfalls in the loop. While Danielle was a little too nervous to ride the bike, Ross loved it and Danielle was happy to be a passenger enjoying the scenery. Next we are heading north to Thakhek where we are planning on doing another motorbike loop to visit some of Laos' cave systems.
Love R and D xxx
Comments