On tour again

We hopped from the Mekong to Thailand, after a few flight confusions due to storms in Germany, we picked up our parents and drove back to Laos, this time to the south, with great joy of seeing each other again.

With the great luxury of our own car, we approach the Bolaven Plateau from Pakse. Here we explore coffee plantations and waterfalls for three days. At Mr. Vieng's plantation we were able to taste coffee from the bush and we finally understood what grows along the roadside everywhere in Laos and is apparently the number 2 export hit next to rice, cassava. Since we are there right at harvest time, we were able to see how the plants are processed and dried directly in the field. After a lot of manual work in the blazing sun, starch or animal feed is made from it.

A second highlight of the plateau are the numerous waterfalls. Here one can only ask: How would you like it? Would you rather watch 170 m of water as it plunges into the depths, or a wide waterfall that invites you to swim in the really cool water and feeds beautiful subtropical plants, or perhaps a hiking waterfall that you cross over bamboo bridges and rocky islands? There is everything here.

We continue via Savanahket, the second largest city in Laos, to the karst mountains around Thakhek. We were there last year and we liked the beauty of the mountains, the clear rivers and the caves so much that we're putting it on our travel plan again.

Kathleen