Day 14 & 15: The Abbreviated Plateau Trip

So here we are in Pakse, ready to get our mountain motorbike driving on in the Bolaven Plateau in Southern Laos, and suddenly Dan's passport is gone. No telling if it was dropped, misplaced, stolen, or used for rolling doobies by the doobie smoking hippies of Don Det. Regardless of how it happened, the thing was gone. So Dan headed to the soul-crushing mush that is Vientiane, and I headed to the Plateau to try to salvage some enjoyment out of an unfortunate situation.

The Bolaven Plateau is a (insert definition of a plateau) lying east of Pakse and the Mekong at an average elevation just over 1000 Km. The area has seen a rise in tourism in recent years thanks to some beautiful landscapes, a collection of impressive waterfalls, and gloriously cheap accommodation. We'd originally hoped to roam around the area with our own motorbikes for 4-5 days, then make our exit at the southernmost border crossing back in to Vietnam, but we all know what happened to THAT plan... (we all know... right??). Given circumstances, a shortened, solo version of the trip would have to be undertaken, for better or worse.

Well... at least the dude in the bungalow NEXT to mine had a good view of Tad Hang...

My first destination was Tad Lo, an area that actually includes 3 fairly substantial waterfalls (Tad Hang, Tad Lo, and Tad Suong), and is the hub of tourism on the Plateau. I grabbed a rickety bungalow by the river with a view of the falls, and immediately made my home in the hammock on the porch. Things were lookin' good, and though I was missing my buddy, I was definitely enjoying the solitude and the peacefulness of the environment I found myself in.

Read on to find out what seemingly inevitable disaster lies in store next

Shortly after settling in, I began to ponder my finacial situation, taking stock of how much money I had with me and how I was going to budget it until I met up with Dan. It turned out to be less than I thought, thanks to the Vietnam visa that cost double what we expected. Now, I had lots more money, but it was all sitting in Dan's bank account (long story...I don't have an account, didn't want to carry that much cash around with me everywhere, etc). I wasn't worried, but I knew I had to tighten the belt just in case it took Dan longer than a day or two to get passport things resolved. This meant I needed to just stay in the town I was in, where I knew there was mega cheap accommodation and food.

The Mighty Tad Lo

Luckily it's a super cool place, and probably the perfect place to get stuck without money. I spent 2 days reading in a hammock and enjoying the big bad waterfalls. After moving out of the $4 bungalow, I decided stay in a shared room above a family's home & restaurant for $1.50 a night. Mama, as the proprietress referred to herself, was also the most badass cook in town, and served up huge portions with bargain prices. Like I said, not a bad place to get stuck!

Hell of a drop

Thats even further down than it looks... just couldn't resist the edge sitting

Luckily Dan got everything taken care of by the afternoon of his second day in Vientiane, a Friday, after which he would have been stuck for an idle 2 days waiting for the embassies to open again on Monday. We thought it best to stick where we were on Friday, and make moves in the afternoon on saturday. We were basically doing the reverse trip of the one we took when we first got to Laos the previous week, as we had to go back to get our bikes, that we were missing terribly already.

So now you know... the next couple days will be about bus rides... Hope to see you next time anyway!