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.