Paske and Bolaven Plateau: May 3rd -4th

We arrived early morning in Paske, a town of 66,000 people. We would make this town our home base for our Bolaven Plateau experience. When we arrived at the bus station, we were overwhelmed by the numerous tuk-tuk drivers offering their services. It was laughable at first in our travels but after a while, you get irritated by the irrational prices tuk-tuk drivers want for their service. Out of all the S.E. countries we have visited thus far, collusion is at its best in Laos. Everything from moto hires to admission fees to accommodation to food are all set at the same ridiculously high prices. Being a less developed country with a weaker economy compared to Thailand and Vietnam, the prices for Laos’ services and goods are much more expensive while the quality of service is under par. Not the best combination one could ask for…

For the rest of the day, we took it easy and did some research for our adventure on the plateau the next day. We had duck foe, similar to Vietnamese’s pho (noodle soup). However, unlike pho, it lacked the savory rich flavors. With the exception of Lao’s traditional ping paa, we have found Laos food to be under par in comparison to its neighboring countries. The food in Laos has been terrible and incredibly expensive that we have turned to Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants to satisfy our tummies. We took a brief walk around the city center which turned out to be only a few blocks before enjoying a nice afternoon nap. For dinner, we ate seafood hot pot at an open-sided Vietnamese restaurant. The family who ran it were very friendly and were very good cooks. It was nice to use Vietnamese to converse with locals again.

We had an early start the next morning. We rented a moto and set off for the small village of Paksong in the Bolaven Plateau 50-km away. Bolaven is famous and popular for its cool climate, greenery, national parks, minority villages, impressive waterfalls and COFFEE. According to Lonely Planet, Laos apparently grows some of the world’s best coffee beans. After having a few cups of Laos coffee in the region, we agreed with the book*s statement. The coffee we had was the real deal. There is a Bolaven free-trade coffee co-op; Starbucks should look into brewing Bolaven Plateau coffee!

Before arriving in Paksong, we visited one of Lao’s famous waterfalls, Tat Fan. It was a very impressive 120-m waterfall. Following Paksong was another impressive waterfall (40-m), Tat Yuang, which we were able to view at close range. With our 100-cc motos and rough roads, it took us close to two hours to make it back to Paske. To make the best of our very expensive moto hire, we rode our moto all around the city and along the river till the gas tank read “E”. On our evening ride, we enjoyed watching brilliant lightning storms in the distance.






More pictures from Laos: www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2261846&l=b2d39&id=10708181