The fear became real to me recently, when I heard the sad news that my Nan had died. Losing someone you love is never easy, but losing someone while away, made me feel helpless and guilty. I am reassured that my Nan died in her sleep, in her own bed and she never had to go to hospital or into a care home. This makes me content and glad that she died with dignity and had it her way.
When I found out I’d lost my Nan, I desperately wanted to call her and tell her how much I love her and to say bye one last time. I regretted not calling her more and not seeing her enough on my last visit home.
I wished I had a crystal ball so I could have foreseen this and chosen to have stayed at home, rather than go travelling again. But then I knew that’s not what she would have wanted. I’m glad I can say I was a good granddaughter, we both liked and loved each other and enjoyed each others company. I know that every meeting and conversation was meaningful and meant a lot to both of us. I am grateful for that.
Stu and I made the easy decision to leave Thailand and go back for my Nan’s funeral. I wish I could see my Nan for a hug and a chat while we’re back, but of course that’s not possible.
Losing someone I love while I’m travelling is still a fear of mine.
If you had this fear would you still leave? Would you put off a trip of a life time because someone might die, or would you go and live your life and what will be will be?
Have you ever lost someone you love while you’re away travelling? How did it make you feel?
The Bolaven Plateau has always conjured thoughts of amazing fresh coffee in Laos’s main coffee growing region, ethnic villages, off the beaten track adventure and wind in our hair excitement!
We’ve been looking forward to Exploring the Bolaven Plateau by Motorbike for months. It’s something we missed out on our last trip to Laos in 2011 during wet-season, as the roads were awful with horrendous landslides and we didn’t have any waterproofs.
Nothing stopping us this time during dry season!
We’ve written a pretty detailed day by day diary account of our 7 day Bolaven Plateau Adventure. Points if you make it all the way through!
Hopefully there’s some helpful information in there about the route and some of the towns around the Bolaven Plateau.
The dream machine!
When we arrived in Pakse we tried to hire a decent motorbike. I wish we could be back on a roaring Royal Enfield, Indiastyle, but budget dictates. So instead we opted for a Suzuki Smash 110cc with a nice little basket on the front!
Check out the info at the bottom of the article before heading out to the Bolaven Plateau.
Coined as ‘The Big Loop’ We rode from Pakse stopping at Paksong via some beautiful waterfalls. Then from Paksong to Attapeu via Tha Taeng and Sekong, then Attapeu to Tat Lo, staying put for a few days in Tat Lo before heading back to Pakse.
Day 1: Pakse to Paksong
One last coffee and a look at the route ahead!
Set off late as per usual, stopping off for one last coffee in the Bolaven Café on the main strip for last minute route checking and photo opportunities!
Stilted shacks and friendly children
As soon as you leave Pakse along Highway 13, you’re thrown back into rural Laos. Wooden stilted shacks, wandering chickens, children playing Takraw, adults coming back from the fields…
Beans drying in the sun
We soon started seeing more and more signs of Bolaven Plateau’s main export – Coffee! We saw countless coffee berry piles drying out in the hot sun along the road. People even grew coffee bushes in their gardens, fenced off from the hungry cows!
We stopped off for our first taste of Bolaven Plateau coffee at a road side shack at a little fair trade place near the sign for E-TU Waterfall. We sampled a short pokey Arabica, mine with sweet condensed milk (in true Lao style!) and Eloise’s black. Washed down with a complimentary tea! The E-Tu waterfall wasn’t in our guide book, and we decided not to go in and to keeping riding on.
The beautiful Tat Yuang waterfall
Tat Yuang waterfall was a few kilometres closer to Paksong. The waterfall is signposted 1 km from the main highway down a bumpy, dirt track. Entrance is 10,000 Kip, not 5,000 as mentioned in the 3 year old Lonely Planet, and 3,000 for the motorbike.
At 40 metres high Tat Yuang waterfall is a beautiful sight – Even in dry season! You can head down onto a wooden walk way for some good shots, or head down to the water. Bust out the swim gear and dive in! You can always swim in the pools at the top of the waterfall, we didn’t but it looked OK!
Cooling off!
We arrived into dusty and relativity low-key Paksong just before dark. There was some sort of washing-up liquid festival going on which was quite bizarre on the main field near the market. We found this Paksong map pretty helpful, showing some guest houses and bike repair places, as well as our pal Koffie’s website, www.paksong.info.
The view from the Savannah Guesthouse
After getting lost for a bit, we rolled into the Savannah Guesthouse at around 6pm; checked into a 80,000 Kip room (Hot shower/TV), washed off the dirt, grabbed some dinner over the road in one of the family run restaurants and turned in ready for an early start tomorrow!
It’s about 50km from Pakse to Paksong, the roads are paved – but there are still a few nasty potholes around so keep an eye out.
Day 2: Paksong and a Coffee Tour!
We’ve heard of a chap called ‘Koffie’ who lives in Paksong – A Dutch expat, coffee lover and connoisseur who runs a coffee shop in town. We called him up and he mentioned he operates 50,000 Kip coffee tours, teaching about the workings of the Bolaven Plateau coffee industry, about the local area, the farmers and everything else coffee related!
The MOST boring dish I’ve ever eaten.
After the healthiest, and probably the most boring breakfast ever of boiled veg and rice, we decided to back track to the Tat Fan Resort, where Koffie has a stall.
A Long day of riding today. We started early and went for morning booster coffee at Koffie’s place. Stopped for Pho and fried noodles and veg at Tha Taeng. At this point we could have either headed further north towards Tat Lo waterfall, but instead decided to blast it to Attapeu via Sekong.
The dusty ‘short cut’ back to Pakse
We had reservations about travelling to Attapeu, as several people we’d spoken too previously mentioned that the town is in the basin of a valley, and regularly gets up to 40+ degrees in dry season.
The village life on the Bolaven plateau is one of its best features. Seeing the smiling faces of the children as they wave at you riding past, it’s a great feeling – and very humbling.
Net fishing in Tat Lo
We saw a couple of boys crash their bike going into a corner too fast over sand. They literally picked themselves up of the red sandy floor, dusted themselves of smiling and laughing, checked their bike over and jumped back on it and rode off – True Lao style!
The ride was incredibly hot today, even at speed on the bike we could feel the sun’s heat on us. We hit some road maintenance a few kilometres outside of Sekong, meaning massive potholes, dust and big rocks.
Sugar cane juice! Soo refreshing!
When we reached Sekong, we quickly stopped at a set of bizarre statues of ethnic villagers. The sun was beating down, so we pulled in for some fresh sugar cane juice, and some interactions for the local wildlife!
Juiced up and cooled down, we pushed on to Attapeu, a good 80km+ from Sekong. The road was spectacular, but we had to go a bit faster than we wanted to beat the setting sun, pushing the Suzuki to a vibration inducing 80kph!
A battle of wits!
The locals living alongside the road come to life as the sun sets and the air cools- Boys run alongside their tyres with sticks, girls and boys play volley ball and boules, adults swing in hammocks enjoying some sticky rice and a Beer Lao.
Frogs anyone?
Throughout the day, the vibe has become ever more Vietnamese. Eventually leading to full Vietnamese signage everywhere you look, with some token Lao language script thrown in.
Timing it perfectly once more and arriving before the sun set over the mountainous plateau, we arrived in Attapeu.
Attapeu is the first main town after the boarder from Vietnam. It feels like Vietnam – The locals drink from the traditional and iconic coffee filter, Com Bo and Pho is on every menu, everything is written in Vietnamese. What little Lao we knew went out the window, our tones or accent falling on Vietnamese tuned ears. We didn’t know whether to speak Lao, Vietnamese or English, we even tried a bit Thai!
Market ninja chicken captor in Attapeu
Our first thoughts were that Attapeu isn’t a tourist friendly place. After watching the sunset with the locals over the river, we drove around for a while to try and find a restaurant with a menu so that we could convey that we wanted something vegan. We were outright refused entry in a couple of places; even one mentioned in our guide book, and we eventually landed at a restaurant run by ‘Mr Touk’ on the bank of the Sekong River for a much needed meal.
Sunset action in Attapeu
We stayed in the Phongsang Guesthouse (60,000 Kip/Hot water, TV), owned by a lovely Vietnamese woman, who seemed genuinely disappointed that we ate Lao food rather than Vietnamese for dinner! We promised to try Vietnamese tomorrow…
Practicalities of Travelling around the Bolaven Plateau by Motorbike
– Road Conditions The main highways around the Bolaven Plateau are in excellent condition, 99% of the time. Potholes and general surface issues can be a problem, as can sudden road works, and dusty unsealed dirt tracks.
– Repairs Every township or village has tyre repair shacks should you get a puncture. If you can get to one, someone will help you out. It seems to be a common occurrence for the locals so try not to panic. Petrol stations are very common, and in the more remote stretches of highway, old style pumps can be found alongside bottle of petrol in case you run out! If in doubt, just top up again if you’re doing a long stretch.
– Safety Other bikes. The Lao don’t race (the majority anyway)! But they’ll double up and ride alongside each other chatting, so give ample overtaking space. Watch out for Hilux and Landcruisers speed-freaks bombing past you, double overtaking a bus and a bike on a bend. On day 3 alone we saw a giant bus towing another one with full cargo of people and supplies, and a truck towing a car using a large piece of bamboo.
Rogue cows, goats, chickens, dogs and children all have a mind of their own, so don’t get too close!
Motorbike Checklist
While I’m not a motorbike mechanic, I’ve ridden enough bikes to know a bad one. As least ride the bike down the road before you commit and hand over your passport. The Bolaven Plateau is a bit bumpy in parts, very if you decided to really go off-piste. So make sure you get the right bike.
Chose a bike with new looking tyres. The bare minimum you should check is that the brakes work, all the lights function and it starts up OK. There are loads of motorbike hire options around Pakse so shop around and you’ll be able to find a nice looking bike. We found 100cc semi auto Honda/Suzuki – 50-60,000 Kip per day, 110cc semi auto Honda/Suzuki 60-70,000 Kip, Automatic ‘twist and go’ scooters 70-80,000 Kip. Lanham Hotel hires out larger 225cc Honda FTR ‘Trackers’ for a 240-280,000 per day, and advertised 250cc motocross style bikes for 350,000, but they didn’t have them when we visited.
Equipment Checklist
-GT Rider Map, or at least a print off on the highway numbers and town names. You can buy these in major towns in Laos, definitely in Vientiane and Luang Prabang. -Sun cream, sun glasses, a Buff for keeping the dust out. -Earplugs -Jumper/Fleece for night time – Paksong is up at 1200m! -Swim wear, in case you want a dip at Tat Lo or Tat Fan -Helmet. Or a donor card. [/box]
We’ve heard of a chap called ‘Koffie’ who lives in Paksong – A Dutch expat, coffee lover and connoisseur who runs a coffee shop in town. Koffie was advertising that he runs a tour of a coffee plantation and a workshop where you learn how to roast coffee beans. It all sounded very exciting, so I signed us up for both!
Koffie runs his coffee tour at the Tat Fan Resort, which is about 38 km from Pakse. He has a table in the restaurant where he makes amazing freshly ground coffee for customers.
The tour started with a cup of coffee of course! Koffie made us a fresh cup of his home roasted, freshly ground coffee before we were on our way.
Koffie began by explaining what we were going to see and what to look for in the coffee plantation.
Robusta coffee tree
In this particular coffee plantation were Arabica trees and Robusta trees. Both very distinct appearances, but Arabica trees look like a Christmas tree in the way that they are small at the top and gradually get wider as the branches go lower. Robusta trees have a lot of branches stemming from the original branch and the bark has an interesting white colour.
Arabica coffee tree leaves
The leaves also give away which type of coffee tree it is. Both Arabica and Robusta leaves feel like plastic to touch, but the Robusta leaves have more of a velour finish, making it an easy way to distinguish the two types.
Coffee berries
Coffee beans grow inside red and green berries in clusters on the branches. You can actually eat these berries, which have a sweet taste, but be careful of the rock hard coffee seed inside!
The tour group walking through the plantation
Coffee grows better and ends up tasting better when it’s grown in the shade. For this reason coffee trees are planted close to each other and their tall, long branches overlap one another creating shade over the berries.
The Bolaven Plateau is situated on an extinct and ancient volcano, which spat out volcanic rocks around the entire region millions of years ago. But this also resulted in an incredibly fertile lava soil, which is great for coffee trees.
Paksong sits at altitude at 1,300m, and has its own micro climate, meaning it’s much cooler than other places in Laos. Throughout the year the daytime temperature is between 20-30 degrees and at night it’s cool enough to sleep without a fan on (!). It never goes as low as freezing, so overall a perfect climate for coffee growing.
Raw coffee berries and roasted coffee beans
Koffie gave us a few tips on coffee drinking and how to choose coffee.
If you want to try the best and feel good about what you’re drinking, ‘only buy single estate coffee’ he said. This means that the beans may have come from one farm, but definitely from the same country. Pro coffee drinkers choose single estate coffee to get a specific taste and to ultimately know what they’re drinking!
Koffie compared single estate coffee to single estate wine and single malt whiskey, as opposed to wine or whiskey blends.
The tools of Koffie’s trade
On our coffee tour we learnt that Nescafe (and other coffee giants) buy up questionable unprocessed coffee beans with an unknown grade of quality. This means they are purchased without going through the usual meticulous methods needed to prepare good coffee. The beans could be of any quality and strength. The coffee giants only want the essence of coffee and don’t want to pay a much for it!
Koffie showing us red coffee berries
We thoroughly enjoyed Koffie’s Coffee Tour and definitely think it was worth the 50,000 Kip (£4) we paid. The whole tour was about 1-2 hours and was very informative and loads of fun. We started and finished with an excellent coffee and left much more knowledgeable about coffee plantations and the whole coffee process. The experience made me eager to learn more about coffee and to choose my cup of caffeine more mindfully!
Freshly made coffee by ‘Koffie’
If it fitted with our plans we would have joined the more comprehensive coffee workshop on offer. But taking around 6 hours, we didn’t have another day spare. There’s always next time! On the workshop you learn how to roast coffee beans and at the end you take home a 250g bag of coffee, sounds like fun and it’s good value at 150,000 Kip (£12.70).
Tat Fan Waterfall
Tat Fan Resort is situated opposite Tat Fan Waterfall. It’s one of the most spectacular waterfalls we’ve seen in Laos, with twin torrents pouring out from dense forest and plunging 120m into the pool below.
Tat Fan Resort has the best viewing point of the falls, which makes the location a perfect place to start Koffie’s Coffee Tour and to enjoy a cup of coffee or two.
Entrance fee to the waterfall is 5000 Kip (42p) per person and 3000 Kip (25p) to park a motorbike.
Koffie also has a coffee shop in Paksong with a large sign outside saying ‘COFFEE’. He may not be there as he’s busy with the tours and workshops, but someone will still be able to whip you up an amazing cup of his roasted coffee!
Don’t forget to check out our other Bolaven Plateau related posts! :
We have reached a new Travel Milestone! 700 Days of Travel!
Our trip of a life time has turned into a new found passion of ours and has given us many new experiences that we’d never of had if we didn’t go travelling.
So on our 700th day of travel we left the very lazy, I mean laid backLaos and flew to the fast developing Thailand – Chiang Mai to be precise.
For the first time in ages we took a flight, a luxury way of travelling don’t you know?! It took only 1 hour and 10 minutes, meaning we arrived in our destination not feeling tired and grumpy, instead excited about being back in a city we love and grateful we got the chance to come back for a 2nd visit. It definitely beats a 17 hour bus journey!
Our first meal back at out favourite Chiang Mai restaurant – Pun Pun
We love it here in Chiang Mai and plan to stay a while. As a vegan, general food lover and as travel bloggers, it has everything we want. From vegetarian restaurants aplenty to quirky independent coffee shops with great Wi-Fi, loads of cool venues, BJJ for Stu and laughter yoga for me, it’s perfect for us!
As I said, we want to stay a while, which means needing to find decent accommodation that doesn’t cost the earth and is appealing enough for us to want to stay in and work (rather than wanting to escape a bed bug ridden hell hole to feel like there are still nice things in the world).
So first night in Chiang Mai we thought we’d treat ourselves to a hotel with a pool and then get on the search for the perfect room the following morning.
Hmmm… As it turned out, Hotel with a pool= Benidorm. Needless to say, we did only spend one night there and left after swimming a few laps in the pool before the lobsters had finished their buffet breakfasts…
Stu getting down to work in our new apartment! We hired our old scooter from the hotel with a pool, then drove off to the hotel we stayed in the last time we were in Chiang Mai to see what they had. Fortunately they had big rooms available, with a double bed, fridge, TV (BBC World News, check) and attached bathroom with hot water and a western loo. We took this super cool room for a good weekly rate.
Sorted. So now we need to get down to work on the blog(s).
We plan for exciting things to happen for Am I Nearly There Yet? in Chiang Mai, plus a few new projects we’re working on. Watch this space! 🙂
