Is that a road?

After leaving the islands on Don Det, I continued onto the city of Pakse with another American that I had met on the island.  We had decided to rent motorcycles and do a loop of the Bolavan Plateau (southeastern Laos) and check out some of the national parks and waterfalls in the area.  We weren’t really sure what to expect because many roads are unpaved, and it was the height of the wet season so it was possible we would encounter impassable roads.  We picked up a map and a phrasebook from the hotel we rented our bikes from and set out for a weeklong bike trip.

Our first stop was at a bike repair shop to get my odometer fixed (essential for navigation because road signs are few and far between).  Luckily bike repairs are very inexpensive and easily accomplished, usually in less than ten minutes.   Throughout the week we had various repairs including my chain requiring tightening, my foot pedal falling off and two flat tires on Pat’s bike.

The first night we arrived in Paksong, which is well known for its central location in the coffee growing region of Laos.  The coffee in Laos is world-renowned; one of the varieties grown there is Arabica, which is considered the champagne of coffee.

There are dozens of waterfalls in the Bolavan Plateu and whenever we saw a sign for one we tried to find it.  We were pretty successfully and managed to find each one we looked for and even managed to find some elephants along the way.   I'll be posting an album soon!

The first few nights we were mostly staying in cities and towns, so we didn't have any problem finding cheap guesthouses.  As we entered more remote territory (heading towards the Vietnam border to the east) there were only villages and dirt roads.  The best night was definitely the one we spend with a Lao family in their home.  We had been driving for hours and the first village was asked either didn't have a place for us to sleep or didn't want us to stay there.  But when we arrived at this village, they ran to get the one person who spoke a little English and we worked out the sleeping arrangements.  It was pretty basic, we slept on bamboo mats in their open air home and bathed outside before dinner with the rest of the villagers.  At this point I had been eating sticky rice 3x per day everyday, but I never got sick of it!  Now that Im home I actually miss eating sticky rice.  Ill be back in Asia soon, so Im sure Ill be eating plenty of it :)

Laos

Alina from Russia & I

I'm currently in Pakse, a city in the southern part of Laos.  I crossed the Cambodia - Laos border about a week ago and have been hanging out on the "Four Thousand Islands" since.  There really are thousands of islands in this part of the Mekong, but only the larger ones are inhabited.  I met some German travelers and a Russian girl on the bus out of Ban Lung (in Cambodia) and we spent most of our time on the island of Don Det.  It has been a relaxing week.  So far, I love Laos - it is probably my favorite country is Asia so far, although I really enjoyed Cambodia as well.  The thing that really sets Lao apart from the other countries I've visited is that there is no one harassing you to stay at their guesthouse, take their tour, or go in their tuk tuk.  It was such a relief to get off the boat on Don Det and have no one trying to convince you where to go!  The islands are very relaxed, and it was the perfect first stop in Laos.  Lonely Planet writes that it "feels so laid back that you could imagine the islands drifting downriver into Cambodia with barely anyone rolling out of their hammock."  Paradise!

In Ban Lung I did a three day, two night trek with two British girls and it was definitely an adventure.  Our guide didn't like trekking (or the jungle) and the ranger didn't speak English.  Most of the communication between us and our guide was "walk faster" or 'kill the leeches!".  Nevertheless, the girls and I got along great and made the best of the situation (I did not get any leeches).  We would have been better off doing the (more expensive) official National Park trekking package.  I also rented a bicycle one day and went to a beautiful lake that was created after a meteor struck.

Now I'm heading to the Bolaven plateau for a week long motorcycle road trip.  I'm really excited, and I originally thought I would not have enough time to see this part of Laos.  I'll be on a Honda Wave 100cc with another American that I met in Don Det.  Although my camera is broken, I have been lucky enough to copy friends' photos in each place I've been so far.  I'll be posting most of them when I get home.  I can't believe I'll be back in the states in about 10 days! I'm looking forward to spending Labor Day weekend in Boston :)

Eventful happenings

Where to begin? When things get busy I'm awful at updating my blog, so I have quiet a few stories to tell :)  I am currently recovering from an injury I sustained this weekend when I stepped on a sea urchin.  This is possibly the worst thing you could encounter in the ocean other than a shark!  It was extremely painful and today is the first day I've been able to put any weight on my foot.  It has been healing faster than I though it would however and I think I should be fine in a few days.  Now, leading up to the sea urchin encounter is another adventure.  Dan and Anth had two house guests in addition to myself this past weekend, Ryan (here for awhile) and Courtney (visiting for a few days from Hong Kong). Ironically, their roommates moved out unexpectedly so we have all had plenty of room in the 3 bedroom apartment.

A group of us decided to take a little road trip to Hsiao Liuchiu.  It was about an hour and a half drive to Dongang where we took a 40 minute ferry to the island.  We spend the day snorkeling and then rode our bikes around for awhile exploring the rest of the island.  The scenery was awesome and there were a lot of interesting temples on the island.  We were having so much fun that it didn't occur to anyone that we didn't know when the last ferry was.  Dan and I thought this was pretty funny because we immediately realized there was little hope of getting off the island that night and I've been looking forward to camping since I've been here.  So we rented some tents and found a campground.  It all would have been a great weekend had I not gone back into the ocean ...

Last week I also went up to Maolin, an area north east of Kaohsiung in the mountains.  Many of the buildings and roads in this area were wiped out by typhoon Morakot last year but it is still very beautiful.  Surprisingly, I haven't gotten lost at all while driving around on my scooter!  Ryan and I accidentally got seperated while we were driving around but luckily I was able to navigate home by myself.  I just got a sim card for my cell phone so I wont have to worry about not being able to get in touch with people anymore.  And I get free incoming calls so feel free to give me a ring if you have a calling card!

I've been fortunate enough to see some great sunsets since I've been here.  I took this picture at the beach near Kaohsiung University.  I'll be uploading more pictures to an online album soon.