The twenty-sixth week

Day 178- 184

On April 1st we drove to Pakse. From here you can go to the Bolaven Plateau. A plateau where a lot of coffee is grown. On the walk from the bus station in Pakse to the hostel (300m), we passed 3 cafes.

As soon as we had unloaded our luggage, we went for a coffee. In a café that has air conditioning. Because it's hot. Terribly hot! 39°C! Too hot to do anything!

On April 2nd we rented scooters to explore the plateau. We planned to spend 2, possibly 3 days on it.

Unfortunately, the wind didn't provide any cooling. You just drove in a hot hairdryer. Terrible!

We stopped at a temple. Not because the temple is beautiful (not at all), but because it is surrounded by huge old trees! Beautiful!

There was also a cave nearby, which I went to. A cemented staircase led down to the cave entrance. I climbed down the 15 steps and looked at the entrance. My breathing was heavy. Man, it was only a few steps! Okay, it's warm. But... I didn't like it and I went back up. Then I saw the little warning sign that you are not allowed to enter the cave because there is no oxygen there!

My friend from Bremen, who studies geology, explained to me that in karst caves (and we suspect that this is one of those because there is a lot of karst rock here) CO2 can escape. This displaces the O2. Lucky again!

We drove on to the village of Tad Lo. Here we stayed in a super cute bungalow on an island in a lake. Nearby is the Tad Lo waterfall, which gave the village its name.

The waterfall is beautiful to look at. The locals have built bamboo huts over the water. There you can sit, drink and eat.

It was terribly hot that day and we discovered something new about ourselves: we can be hot and angry. We already know that we are hangry. Then we bicker a lot. God forbid we are never hangry and hot and angry at the same time! Ha!

We bought beer at the waterfall. We were super excited. But the first dip in the water was so good that our mood suddenly improved. So we sat in the river, looked at the waterfall, drank our beer and were happy.

The next day we drove on. Or at least we wanted to. Ivar had a flat tire. But there is a garage in every village, so it was no problem getting help. To change the tube, the mechanic didn't even need the length of a cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth.

We drove along a great route, through nature, past small villages with children waving excitedly and calling "Hello!" or "Sabaidee".

We then drove over bad roads to Mystic Mountain Coffee Farm. This coffee plantation is in the middle of nature, far away from the nearest major road and therefore quiet. You can see the nearby extinct volcanoes and walk through the rows of coffee. Always followed by the farm dogs.

We actually wanted to stay one night, but it was so nice that we stayed two nights.

We rested, lay around in the hammock a lot and read. Since the farm is at 1,200 meters, it was warm during the day (about 26-27°C) and pleasantly cool at night.

Unfortunately, on April 5th we had to leave.

We said goodbye to the coffee plantation family and the dogs and drove towards Pakse.

On the way we stopped at a waterfall called Champee, where I swam a bit.

We dropped off our scooters in Pakse and went to our accommodation to shower off the dirt from the street.

On April 6th we went to the Mekong Archipelago. Also called the "4000 Islands". The Mekong is very wide here and countless (perhaps 4000) islands rise out of the water. Some are inhabited, the smaller ones are not. Often they don't even have a name because you can only stand on them and spin in circles. There's no room for more.

We went to the island of Don Khone. Together with its sister island Don Det, the two islands were inhabited by the French colonial power. There are still some colonial buildings. The French even built a railway line here. It no longer exists, but the route has been paved and is great for cycling.

Life here is a little quieter and slower. There are lots of hammocks and mats in restaurants invite you to linger (and take a nap or two). Cows roam freely and graze under the palm trees.

It could be so idyllic if it wasn't so terribly hot! Around 40°C.

We spent the rest of the day and the whole of Sunday lying around in the hammocks to cope with the heat.