Gone South for the Weekend

Accentuating the work hard, play hard mantra, the day after last week's holiday ended, Monica (my co-worker at CARE) invited me down to Pakse (Champasak Province) in southern Laos with her for the weekend. Her tennis teacher was going down to Pakse, his hometown, for a work meeting, and invited her to tag along. Pakse is also the jumping off point for Laos' coffee-growing region, breathtaking waterfalls, and Laos' other UNESCO World Heritage site.

After work on Friday, Monica and I hopped the 10-hour overnight sleeper bus from Vientiane to Pakse (~$20 one-way). We were delighted in having upper beds, 9U and 10U...until we realized that 9U and 10U were the same bed. We had a good laugh and squeezed in. Yes, the weekend turned out to be a good bonding retreat. The ride was actually pretty smooth, although I had to stick my feet off the edge a bit to get comfortable.

(Left) Here's the inside of our bus. Along one side were single beds (200,000 kip) and the other side double beds (180,000 kip). The lower beds were even cheaper. That's only a difference of about $4, but that's a meal's worth, and neither of us minded the squeeze. (Right) That's Monica making our bed. I'm glad she thought to bring the clean sheets! Plus, they gave us treats: water, cookies, and fruit at night, and a moist towelette and breath mints in the morning. How thoughtful...!

(Left) This was my bus ticket from Pakse back to Vientiane. The number on the bottom was the license plate number of the bus we needed to look for. (Right) This buggy-looking bus was our ride back. Much glossier and bigger-looking than our first bus, but it actually was horribly uncomfortable. Being newer, it could also run faster, which meant bigger bumps. Not fun at all! Translation: Going into work this morning after that was killer!

Once we arrived Saturday morning around 6:30am, we took a tuk-tuk into town to find a guesthouse. On the way, we started chatting with a German girl, Nadine, who turned out to also work in Vientiane, with a German development organization. After grabbing a cuppa joe, we all found a place and cleaned up. I insisted on getting a place with hot water (I'll bathe in the freezing cold river in the mountains when it's time!), and we were all very grateful for that later in the day...

After a late breakfast, we booked a sawngthaew for the day to bring us 40km out east of Pakse to Bolaven Plateau -- land of coffee and waterfalls. The plateau spans several provinces and has several dramatic waterfalls set in verdant jungle. We visited Tat Luang (the tiered one), Tat Fan (the tall one), and Tat Champee (for swimming!), but didn't have time for Pa Suam which is surrounded by ethnic minority villages. These waterfalls were amazing. Highly recommended!!

On Sunday two of Nadine's friends caught up with us, and we booked a slow boat down the Mekong to Champasak town 46km south from Pakse. From that tiny, quiet town we took a tuk-tuk out to Vat Phou, Laos' second UNESCO World Heritage site, listed in 2001. This temple pre-dates Angkor Wat by about five centuries!

The Four Thousand Islands at the very southern part of the Mekong before it goes into Cambodia would also be worth a visit. And there you have it. I wish I could make some astute observation for you -- on the people, the cuisine, the history between northern and southern Laos -- but I can't, for now. For the time being, I am pure tourist, capturing these lovely images for you.

How ridiculous, but I am leisured out! This week it's time to get down to business. I have a number of key objectives to accomplish this week and next at work to move my projects along. Will post soon about those...ciao! xoxo