Waterfall Adventures (Pakse, Laos)

Pakse, Laos :: Sunday May 21st, 2017

What a magical place. We’ve been in Laos less than a week, but it’s natural beauty is resonating. We’re quickly falling in love.

Today, we woke up in the town of Pakse. We walked down a side street where all the local restaurants are, and had a bowl of fresh noodle soup for breakfast. It’s pretty much the Asian version of oatmeal. We also grabbed a few fresh baguette sandwiches for “take-away”, so we had some extra food for the road.

We had arranged for very nice lady named Vong, a local entrepreneur, to take us on a private tour of the region. The M.O. for the day was to seek out and enjoy rural Laos, with a focus on beautiful waterfalls…We were in for a treat.

The first stop, Tad Phasueam (Tad means waterfall). Going down a path in the jungle, we saw a bridge. As we approached we looked to our left and saw what our ears had already told us was there, a beautiful waterfall. Between us was a very “iffy” looking suspension bridge with vines and flowers growing all over it…we walked over and gingerly gave it a try…it was fine. Butterflies danced all around, and it seemed we picked a great day, as the sun was shining and the skies were blue.

We continued on around the trail to several other smaller but equally stunning falls. A sign read “—> to Ethnic village”, so we investigated. It was a small village with about a dozen stilted houses, no electricity. The locals all dressed in traditional clothing. We listened for a while to an elder playing a stringed instrument akin to a guitar, and the girls played with the local kids. Although I’m sure they were playing to the tourists to an extent, they did actually live there, and it was pretty cool to witness.

The next stop was Tad Fane, a 120 meter drop. Our viewpoint was from above, so we could see where the sky met the green jungle on the other side of the valley. Then from 2 points, the water fell down all that way, creating a mist that rose from the landing spot below, it was picturesque.

We then took a small break from the waterfalls to visit Bolaven Coffee Plantation. We took a tour and saw the fields of coffee trees, even picked some of the (Green) beans off the tree’s, and munched on them. In November/December the beans turn from green to brown, and are then ready to be harvested. After the tour, we stopped and sampled some of the coffee. I’m really not a coffee connoisseur, but it was pretty good!

Last, but not least, was Tad Gneuang. Absolute Paradise! To try to describe it is way outside my capabilities, so we’ll just show lots of pictures.

We walked down some steep steps, across a bridge which was drenched by the mist generated by the falls, again of course, jungle all around. As we looked at the falls, a full rainbow presented itself, again a result of the sunny blue sky. We stopped at the end of the viewpoint and looked up at the start of the water falling, and down to the mist and rainbow.

Then we went up stream a bit over some green fields to a place where the rapids were tame. We got into our swim suits, and jumped into the very refreshing water. The water was just deep enough for me to have a seat, and lean back in the starfish position to totally submerge myself. On a hot day in Laos, it was the perfect way to cool down.

With the four of us all sitting in the river, in the middle of the jungle near Pakse, Laos. I thought to myself, it can’t get any better than this!