I just realised I have not written at all about Vientiane. Reason? I wouldn't really know what to say. In a previous blogpost I referred to Luang Prabang as 'the quintessential Laotian town'. After having travelled Laos more extensively, I changed my mind. Vientiane fits the stereotype of Lao town, nevertheless because it is the only place which is sizeable enough to have a 'town' feel to it. And it's the capital of Laos, but it certainly doesn't feel like a capital. Luang Prabang is more of a tourist catch, the Venice or Bruges of Laos. Not entirely representative of the soul of a country, but beautiful nonetheless. Vientiane has all the features that struck me and other visitors to Laos; it is relaxed, it has a slow pace, locals are friendly and welcoming. Stick into this some Communist-style squares, a couple of impressive temples and the mighty Mekong, and you have the capital of Laos. Spend a couple of days, visit the Golden Stupa, Buddha Park and the Arc de Triomphe, some of the smaller temples and have a Beerlao by the river.
A pleasant surprise: Laotian sleeper buses are excellent. We returned to Vientiane after Kong Lo caves, and jumped on a night bus to Pakse, in the south of the country. The bus had two person bunks, enabling us to have a good night sleep and arrive in Pakse fresh and relaxed. The main reason for our trip to Pakse was visiting the Bolaven Plateau, a beautiful highland expanse featuring waterfalls, coffee plantations and forest. We decided to visit the area after following the advice of an American guy we met on the way back from the Buddha Park in Vientiane. Now more than ever, I am starting to become aware of the limitation of guidebooks; in many a town the Lonely Planet ‘our pick’ guesthouse was nothing more than a smelly, overpriced dump. Those ‘hole in the wall’ restaurant promising a great feed for less than $ 0.50 have ridden the falang wave and quickly equipped themselves with a laminated menu of watered down specialties at inflated prices. And I do not mean to blame any guidebook writer, that’s just what happens. Get a spot on the LP and you’re almost assured every single morning masses of backpackers will turn up begging for a room. Would you worry about keeping up your standards? Maybe not.
So, what do I do? I ask people. Most people in South East Asia are on a ‘circuit’, mostly taking in Thai Islands, north to Chiang Mai, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The order or direction may vary. Everytime I meet someone who’s been somewhere we’re bound to I ask recommendations on food, accommodation and sights. This American bloke regarded his day spent zipping around the Bolaven Plateau by motorbike as his best in three months of travelling. How could we pass that? And so we were, on the back of a 100cc Honda, never having ridden a motorcycle before. It is really easy, and after a couple of hours we were doing 70-80 km an hour. We rode on a road with a gentle slope, going up past villages and the omnipresent roadside huts selling petrol in plastic bottles. Tad U-Men, the first waterfall we stopped at, was not marked on our map. We stopped anyway, and what a surprise! We descended down a small gorge via a stepladder, to find a towering flow of water 20 meters above us. And to top it all, we were alone, the water glistening in the midday sun.
There are more than 20 waterfalls in the Bolaven Plateau; it was clear we had to narrow our choices. We decided to visit Tad Fane, the ‘twin waterfalls’. We saw this waterfall from a viewpoint, from where one could see the edge of the plateau, and two narrow streams of water plunging into the darkness below. There there is an option to trek to the bottom of the falls; however, it is reserved for the guests of the exclusive resort who runs the treks. We kept going, towards Tad Yeang and the coffee plantations. Tad Yeang was perhaps the most spectacular of all falls. There were a series of pools upstream, where one could bathe. Southern Laos is steaming, with temperatures around 40 this time of year; jumping into the waterfall was extremely refreshing. But the real marvel lies downstream, a waterfall about 50 meters high, with a vertical fall, into a picture-perfect and calm pool below.
Coffee plantations were rather small, resembling urban gardens more than commercial agricultural land. The produce, though, is delicious. We took the road again, bound for Tad Lo, the largest and most famous waterfall which was about 60 km away. That’s where we learnt our first lesson about motorcycling. Although the seats look puffy and padded, after the whole day your bum hurts. Seriously hurts. Tad Lo was spectacular, worth the sore bum. It was more imposing than the other, messier and not as picture-perfect, but it conveyed that element of power associated with waterfalls. The 80 km ride back to Pakse was hell for our backsides. A quck count, and we realised we had done 189km on that day. For first timers, that’s quite good. We finished the day with Beerlao and a chicken tikka masala, comfort food for two former Londoners now in Asia. Bolaven Plateau was spectacular. Our mistake? Doing too much in one day. We were exhausted by the end of it. A much better idea is to explore the plateau over two or three days, stopping in the small villages dotted around. A lesson for you, my dear reader; a reason to go back for me.
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