Still day 29 - a day in Don Khon

Day 29 afternoon - me and Ben hired 2 bicycles (no motor bikes for tourist is allowed in Si Pha Don) planning to cycle to Don Khon, the island where we weren't allowed to enter without paying yesterday. The rocky road was very bumpy all the though. We drove passed the bridge, through more rice fields, some ponds with several buffalos, ladies selling grilled bananas on the way, we saw the Mekong waterfall. It wasn't as big as the Khon Phapheng in Don Khong, but it was good enough to brighten my day. The sky was bright blue without a single cloud. I could feel how powerful the river was. It passes through the whole Lao and now reached Si Pha Don, almost the end of Lao n enters Cambodia.

We bumped into few friends we met last nite, Tim and Richard and some of their new met friends. We had an extremely long lunch as preparing meals is always slow and easy in Lao. By the time we finished lunch it was almost 4pm. We went to a "beach" or a "bay" of the Mekong for a swim. The beach size is like a bedroom size.

The most amazing thing about this "beach" is it has quick sand in the river bottom. If you stand still in the river, you would get slowly sucked into the riverbank. We were jumping on it like walking on a floating bed. I never experienced quick sand before, I felt like Indiana Jones... We didn't stay there for too long as there were buffalos trying to have a dip too. They were too anxious to see so many humans in the river, they backed off, but left some left overs in the river. It was time for us to leave.

Cycling back to our island was sunset time. Couldn't resist to slow down to take last few more pictures of this amazing purplish orange sunset.

Day 29 - What a morning

Day 29 - woke up in grumpiness. I was trying to stay in bed as long as i could to avoid washing my hair in cold shower. Wasn't quite the way I wanted as I was woken up by the baby grand daughter of the guesthouse owner at around 630a.m. Still trying to hide in my bed denying the reality. The noise could only go louder and louder... No other choice, i had to start my day with the cold shower (with a man yelling super loud next to our toilet). 2 very important things in my day I can't be messed up with. 1) my sleep and 2) my breakfast. Sometimes I have bad hair day... and today was my double messed up day.

I was trying my very best to hide my frustration. Guess I didn't put enough effort and all my friends could tell i was in a "dun mess with me" mood. Thought a nice breakfast would change everything. I couldn't expect much from fried eggs and baguette, so i ordered chicken sandwich. Before my sandwich came, i went washroom. Guess what, no water to wash hands or toilet paper. I have forgotten how many times I went toilet without toilet paper or clean water in Lao. But today it seemed like end of the world to me.

Sandwich came. "what is that?" we went to an indian restaurant and met that very friendly indian staff. The food, reminds me 7-11 sandwich. It was unfortunately awful to eat. I nearly cried. Why today? The fact that these couple of days would be my last few days in Lao magnified 100 times of my frustration. It was all good and enjoyable after all, yet, not today.

Me and Ben decided to cycle to Don Khon hoping some outdoor sport and the big waterfall would cheer up my day. em... would see.

day 28 - island walk Don Det, Si Pha Don

Day 28 - Hot hot hot! no electricity on this island apart from 630pm to 11pm and sometime super early in the morning, when I could never early enough to enjoy. The guesthouse, Mama's we stayed has 4 rooms. The room isn't too big, very basic and rural. They are bungalows linked up together with a shared terrance. On the terrance, there are hammocks overseeing the Mekong. The sky was so blue, the island opposite to our guesthouse has a very big dark green chunky tree.

Had our breakfast, fried eggs and baguette of course. Everyone seemed pretty lazy in the morning chilling out at the hammock. Time is slow in Si Pha Don because you seriously have no better things to do on this island apart from lying on the hammock. After an hour of trying to kick everyone out from the hammock, 4 of us decided to take a walk around the island before lunch. I thought the island was small but i was wrong...

There are many guesthouses some are bungalows and some are made from concrete. Some really Lao and exotic, some are tacky as hell. Lonely planet says the Si Pha Don is turning into another Vang Vieng, where is becoming a hippy touristy place. Some bars do serve happy shakes. I had no serious opposition against tourism, as I believe to certain extent improve the local's life. The bottom line is, these places in Lao are very beautiful, simple and pure. It would be a shame that the environment and the people's culture got abused. Like I have no idea why we need those concrete hotels n tacky architecture here, which created huge contrast to the local hood.

We walked past the tourist area, we entered the local villages. There were so many children; swimming in the river, helping the grannies, walking the buffalos, playing along the road, they were everywhere. Brought a smile on my face. After the villages, we there were rice fields, and more rice fields for another 2 hours. I was exhausted walking under the heat. We couldn't walk back as kristina walked really fast n disappeared in the front. We couldn't leave her alone so we had to keep walking and tried to finish the round island walk. I wasn't a huge hiking under the strong sun fans. I was secretly a bit grumpy :P

We saw a bridge crossing the Mekong to another island, Don Khon. Don Khon looks more delux with appealing restaurants. Grass always greener in the opposite side. I gotta take back what i said about the touristy comment. I did very much want to have a nice meal and a cool pineapple shake there... BUT NO! we have to pay an entrance fee to this island. Capitalism!!! We walked back to where we came from the other side of the bridge feeling defeated. Went to the only restaurant near the bridge instead. Doesn't matter, the pineapple shake was just as delicious in this island :)

After hours and hours of walking, it was almost sunset when we finally finished the walk. We had dinner and went to a snooker bar for a drink. I once again got myself pretty drunk. But I had very good fun; trying to do spanish dancing with Ari and had our most amazing "where the banana gone?" banana pancake.

Day 27 - Champasak & Si Pha Don

Day 27 - Guess what for breakfast? regardless what were written on the menu... expect fried eggs n baguette in the south.

Today we went to Wat Phu, the ancient Khmer religious complex in Champasak. It is smaller compared with Angkor Wat in Cambodia, but the site layout that is unique in Khmer architecture, led to Unesco declaring Wat Phu complex a world heritage site. The stairs are unbelievably narrow and steep, that i could barely put my foot on it. The old tall trees are beautiful. They grow on both sides of the stairs and covered the sky like a tunnel. The site is big. We spent hours taking pictures and walking around.

After the walk, it was pass noon time, we got to catch the boat again and move on to Si Pha Don. I just realized we had to cross the Mekong again to the other side, where we came last night. Today we had the big boat. The weight of the big boat can carry was unbelievable. Considering it was a combination of 2 long tail like boats and a board. There was a shuttle bus on the boat with us... These boats on the Mekong are by far the most spontaneous vehicles i have seen.

We didn't know what the bus schedule was and it was getting late. So... we decided hitch hike. Guess what we got? A tractor! I couldn't believe a tractor will stop for us. 4 of us, 2 other travelers plus some locals all popped onto the back. If on a normal bus, it would take 3-4 hours to Si Pha Don, but now, i guess would be 6 hours, i guess? it wasn't the most comfortable seat, however, i was enjoying the open top tractor and the random kindness of the local people.

After an hour, we were transferred to a jumbo. It was packed. The first thing i saw at the end of the jumbo were 2 little piggies. Before we popped into it, there were at least 12 people in there, bags of rice and cements all over the floor. There were 4 of us plus another 2 travelers. We could barely squeeze ourselves into the back.

Another 2 hours of sardine experience, we finally arrived another pier. Got to cross the Mekong on a long tail boat to Don Det, one of the islands in Si Pha Don. I could only see under the moon light. After a day of traveling, we back to quietness and calmness surrounded by the Mekong and the sky.

We arrived pretty late, was about 10ish at night. Ben brought us to the place where he used to stay n knows the owner pretty well, called the Mama's. At night I couldn't see the island well, but I thought it was very small as we only walked like 3 mins from the pier and here we found the Mama's.

It was another long traveling day. I enjoyed my first time hitch hike. I like the unknown, the surprises, the random kindness and the flexibility. no rules, no boundaries.

Day 26 night - Marching to the south

Day 26 evening - 4 of us arrived Pakse and returned the bikes around 7pm. Me and Ben did pretty well in these 4 days, as opposed to a 6 days trip. In order to utilize our days in Lao (only 5 more days left), we decided to head further south tonight. To our final destination of Lao, Si Pha Don, we had to stop by Champasak for a night. We were struggling if we could make it tonight as the journey would first take 1-2 hours to the pier and the boat crossing the Mekong to Champasak stops at 9pm.

We finally managed to find a friendly jumbo driver who was willing to drive us there. It was almost a 2 hour drive in the dark. We drove pass the beer Lao factory, after a while it was complete black. No lights, no cars, no stars. Not soon later, it started raining. So heavily. The driver passed us a plastic sleeve to make our own shelter against the rain. Me and Ari have been holding up our hands for almost 45 mins. Feeling numbed. I could feel how clumsy I was. Getting wet, freezing cold wind blowing through the leaks to my underarm...

Luckily it stopped raining. Arrived the pier, no more big boats. Yet, we managed to find a small boat crossing the Mekong. it was actually a floating board with an engine technically. The Mekong is wide, but very calm. Safely, chillingly we made it to Champasak!

We jus realized the boat dropped us at a different pier, where was 2km away from town. It was dark. no hope to hire a tuk tuk. Guess walking with the bags was the only option... My bag was over 20kgs :( I just kept my mouth shut, walking, trying to catch up with the speed. Everyone seemed walking comfortably but my little legs were silently complaining.

Luckily luckily we bumped into a gathering restuarant with full of locals watching "king of Kung Fu". One of the locals who owner of a guesthouse, who offered us a ride. I was so over the moon happy.

here we were. Finally settled down. It was almost 1030pm. I had my fried rice, not too good, but hey, we were in Sekong this morning and now we made it to Champasak. A huge progress we made. Nothing seems impossible in this journey. We were all enjoying the not very good fried rice celebrating our successful day :)

Day 4 - Tad Fan - the tallest waterfall

Day 4 (day 26 of the traveling) of the southern swing - Couldn't wake up too early in the morning as was feeling a bit hang over from last nite. Went to the same place for breakfast. We saw the menu got quite a variety of breakfast selections. I couldn't stop thinking what to fill up my belly. I have ordered an american breakfast n ben ordered his scramble eggs n baguette, of course our favorite lao coffee. I was so looking forward to some western touch. Ended up here came 2 identical breakfast, fried eggs cooked both sides and baguette. Emm... where were my beacon and sausages gone?

Was thinking to have lunch at Pakxong, however, the town wasn't too appealing and it was freezing cold up in the plateau. We decided to head towards the waterfalls. The first waterfall of today we went was Tad Niang. It was quite a pleasant ride as much as i enjoyed sitting at the back, I was happily adoring the views passed along us. We still at the plateau, we drove pass some coffee fields and more rice fields. After an hour drive, here we arrived Tad Niang. Thank God it wasn't difficult to find as I was a bit paranoid that we might have to experience that waterfall hunt like the last one. It was more touristy than I expected considering we saw less than 10 tourists in the past few days. There was a nice little garden along the river and for another 10 mins walk, there was the waterfall.

Around another 45 mins drive we arrived Tad Fan. It is another twin waterfall but seems bigger and further. It was like a valley and we could only see it from the opposite side of the waterfalls from a resort. Ben said he once been to the top of tad fan by trekking for 2 days in the jungle reaching the other side of the valley.

We had lunch at this fancy hotel although they made the worst pineapple shake. The grilled fish, curry chicken and the sticky rice however, was amazingly good. Nothing better than some hot delicious food after a freezing motor ride at the plateau.

The sun was hidden behind the cloud and it was raining heavily for a little while. I was cold. I could feel Ben, also now became the wind shield, was shaking. We were freezing in Lao today.

That's the end of our 4 days southern swing. When we arrived Pakse, it was evening. We got lost a bit in Pakse as it was "so different" from what we left here 4 days ago in the morning. I missed these 4 days. I had real good time looking at the rural side of Lao, close look at the waterfalls, being a bit adventurous and spent some good quiet time. Now, here we were, ready for our journey to Si Pha Don :)

Day 3 - Sekong good food n spoon~

Day 3 (still the 25 day of our traveling) - After another 3-4 hours 100km/hr driving we arrived Sekong. It was almost night time. We found a very nice guesthouse with a private balcony, hot shower (yay!!) and air con. We were all quite exhausted from this afternoon's waterfall hunt n the long way fast n furious driving.

Heard there was a very good restaurant in town, with great variety of food, what would be better than food? We were so dedicated to find it out. Food was awesome good. There was short history of Laos and tips on the menu which was very interesting too. In Lao, there were 4 common order, laap (traditional lao dish), curry with beef / pork / chicken / buffalo, sweet n sour with the same 4 kinds of animals and pan fried of the same 4 kinds. I can't not mention sticky rice. My favorite of all.

Lao people finish their day early. Nothing more fun than playing cards as we were the only 4pp in town still awake after 11pm. We ordered a bag of Lao Lao (traditional Lao wine made by sticky rice, no taste but only feel the burning in the throat) n some soda. Here the war started. It was brutal to watch. We started playing spoon (totods los dias). It was brutal to watch because Ari lost most of the time and she did most of the drinking. After I had finished my 2nd shot, she had already 6. People enjoy watching people in pain sometimes. We had Lao Loa chocolate shake in flame. Let's get creative for the looser!!

Spoon is an awesome drinking game. the possibility of loosing is very small yet everyone probably lost at least once or twice under the accumulative system. So, conclusion is, either no play or prepared to be punished. Our days of Lao Lao started as the spoon war started here.

Day 3 of the southern swing - Nam Tok Katamtok hunt

Day 3 (our day 25 of traveling) - after saying goodbye to the monkey, first thing we went for internet. I was paranoid from living under the "lost the camera" shadow. So i got to, had to make sure my photos were saved in my hard drive. &(*&W*$_!!! why the computer couldn't read my hard drive?? that didn't help to soothe my paranoia at all. Couldn't change anything. Instead, had a very strong vietnam coffee n super fatty pork with rice for brunch to distract my frustration.

We started the day pretty late. It was almost 130pm when we started our day 3 journey. Off the very nicely paved road, we turned to a very bumpy rocky road to find our 4th waterfall, Katamtok. We drove a long way uphill to the mountain we saw 2 motobiks. 2 very untidy looking familiar human being climbing out from the bush. They were Ari and Kristina!!! We missed them in the morning n here found them in the bush! Haha! hilarious! apparently they were trying to follow the lonely planet trying to find the same waterfall as we were. From their facial expression n scratches on their feet, they haven't found it yet.

The lonely planet says the trail to the waterfall is only 25m walk but it is very easy to miss. We drove up n down the same road, stopped by many hidden trails. I went to 2 waterfall hunt trails (no luck of course) n decided to stay with the bike as there were 2 keeners (Ben and Ari) were quite happy to search for it into the jungle. We could hear the water running, could see the river but had no idea where the waterfall would be.

At last only Ben was trying almost 5-6 different trails, bumped into spiders, ants, creatures, plants, whatever you can think of in a jungle. Still no luck. Then here came Ari coming from no where with her bike waving at us. She found it. The trail was so NOT hidden! but instead of a forward or sideway hidden trail, it was a backward (like a U turn from the way you heading /|) wider than a road trail. We made it!! It was kind of big. 2 parallel waterfall went side by side. In the book, it says no data shows whether Katamtok is the tallest in Lao or Tat fen. anyway, it is tall. Whether it worth for 4 hours hunt... m... i wish it would be taller than our HK IFC.

Ben and I were supposed driving up the plateau to Tat Fan and Tat Nang, may be stay in Tat Fan for a nite. But we have spent 4 hours in searching the "hidden" trail. So, we decided to head back to Sekong with the girls and stay in Sekong for a night instead.

Day 2 - a nite at attapeu with Ari and Kristina

Still Day 2 (day 24 of our traveling) - we finally arrived Attapeu at night. The finding a guesthouse, checking in and finding a restaurant process was very smooth. I had a very good feeling about this town even thou it is called buffalo poo. We had Korean BBQ. Yay! It has been a very long time since I had something different. I was happily waiting for my food to be cooked. There was also Thai karaoke music as background. It was like our 80's. Awesome.

I had a very happy belly. There were only 2 tables left. One was us and the other one had 2 western girls opposite to ours. When there were not many people alike, we cherish everyone who is available to talk to us. Here we met Ari (Ariadna) from Barcelona (called Bar"th"elona) and Kristina from Toronto. Ari has golden brown hair who speaks sexy spanish accent english in a sandy voice. Kristina has really dark brown hair, very tan skin, a girl full of passion. At the beginning I was a bit tired to social while still enjoying the star light chill out moment. But soon I started to appreciate the opportunity to know these two girls. I had a feeling that we could talk anything and everything. How magical I had a very good feeling so quickly that I know right a way, these are good people with good heart and passion.

We left the restaurant as obviously the owner n his family were waiting for us to leave. We had a karaoke hunt but ended up it was some local's bed room. There was one little bar in the whole town still open after mid night. We spent hours talking n having beer. I wasn't a huge beer fun but I enjoyed the whole conversation, from traveling to home town story, from when internet was invented to when Armstrong went to the moon. It was our true pleasure to meet Ari and Kristina.

From then, we traveled in 4. A new 4pp traveling story started here. What's good for 4? card games!!!