Up way too early again. This time its 4am and I'm wide awake. Another few days and I may actually sleep all the way until 7am. I read until Cramer wakes up then we head down the street to the Lankham Hotel which serves up some awesome noodle soup for breakfast. Apparently this is what all the locals eat in the morning. We order two bowls of soup and I order some eggs and bread on the side. They come out with two huge bowls of soup and 3 eggs and 2 bagettes. Looks tasty. Plus the soup comes with all these vegetable sides that your suppose to throw in the soup, like cabbage, green beans, basil, lime, etc. Since the French were here at one point they make some awesome bagettes. Cramer and I slurp down the soup and make an egg sandwich for the each of us out of the eggs and bagettes.
After getting out fill there we go right next door and rent scooters. Its only about $7 US/ day. Our plan is to drive about 150km (100miles) in a big loop and see a bunch of waterfalls and hit a coffee plantation/ cafe in the middle. We fill our tanks and we're off. Being on the bike on the open road with the warm breezes blowing, I realize it doesn't get much better than this. It totally takes me back to my college days in Madison, cruising around town on the hot summer days and nights. The landscape is green and lush and low green mountains lie in the background covered in mist. The dirt outside the city is a bright orangish brown, almost the identical color to the rocks in Red Rocks, CO. As we get further and futher from Pakse the few tourists I see. I think I see only 4 other white people the whole time we're riding. It must still be kind of a big thing to see a tourist, especially a white one, because all the little kids are waving at me as I drive by. Cramer too, even though he's Korean American. I think they know we're tourist because we have sunglasses on. I still haven't figured out what's the deal with sunglasses here. No Laotian people wear them. Not even when driving the motor scooters down the highway at 50mph, with dust everywhere and the sun blazing down. (I've asked two people, but didn't get an answer) Even the older people looked somewhat perplexed seeing us, some smiling, some just kind of staring.
The first stop is Tad Phasuam. Tad means waterfall and there are about 4-5 to see on this loop. This is a cool waterfall with an area for dining and drinks. We wanted to go swimming, but the area doesn't seem designed for it. On the way out I see an elephant that is there for giving rides I suppose and take a picture. There are suppose to be elephants all over the area, this is the only one I've seen so far. After leaving Tad Phasuam we want to hit Tad Lo. The only problem is the people don't believe in putting up big highway signs and arrows pointing the way you're suppose to go. So we pretty much missed the turn for Tad Lo. Figuring that there are a bunch of other waterfalls still to see we keep driving not looking back. At this point the sky is turing pretty gray and it looks like rain will start to fall any second. We keep driving until we get to the coffee plantation. A beautifully manicured garden and grounds along with a wonderful house that serves as a cafe for the coffee they grow. Just as we enter the house the sky begins to open up and pour. The area around the plantation is just amazing. Beautiful landcaping and little ponds, bridges, and a plethera of various plants stimulate the senses. The rain just seems to make the forest and plants come alive even more. After a coffee and a little wait we drive to brave the road again. We still have about 90Km to get back to Pakse. After driving for about 10 minutes the sky just opens up again. We're driving in the pouring rain on the scooters. Drenched to the bone the temperature has also drop significantly. Apparently in this area the elevation is higher and rain storms and temperature flucuactions are the norm. Wow! I went from sweating only a few hours again to shivering and cold. I guess there is some lesson along the lines of take the good with the bad. My new favorite motto, grin and bear it. A little suffering is good for your compassion. After 15 minutes of pouring rain it lets up and we continue cruising in wet clothes hoping they'll dry quickly. We finally get off at Tad Yuang, another of the waterfalls on the map. If you haven't figured it out yet Tad means waterfall in Lao. These falls are much more impressive and require us to walk down and navigate some treacherous terrain. Our ds are both numb, but we're slowly getting feeling back. There are tourists here, but they're mostly from Thailand or maybe Japan. I haven't seen a westerner for awhile. Seeing two waterfalls seem like enough and we decide to head back. On the way back the sun comes out and the temperature begins to soar again. All that water must have washed off my sun tan lotion. When I get mack the top of my thighs right below my shorts, my nose, and my biceps right below my shirt are two shades of purple. I scream, "White man just wasn't made for this climate..." as I pump my fist to the sky. Hahaha. 6 days into the trip adn I'm still trying to get my body acclimated to the climate. We grab some more food: Lao spaghetti for me and Cramer gets some kind of peppery chicken with sticky rice. I even got an chocolate ice cream cone. Thanks Chin. She works at the restaurant that we've eaten at a few times now. She is really cool and told us a bunch of stuff to see in the area. She can't speak very good English, but she can speak it better than most around here. That's one of the only negative around here: most people don't speak English so communication is very difficult. Good thing most of the menus come with pictures in them. Its been another extremely long day and we're both burnt out, me literally. Throw on Gernany vs Argentina and pass out in the AC. Thank God for AC.
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