3 days. 350km. 1 motorbike. 2 adventurers. Remote countryside and exotic coffee in mind. Absolute travelling freedom.Extract from travelling journal.
Journal entry - Day 1 - March 27, 2011
10:30 - After some tasty coffee and lemongrassy gingery Pakse sausages, rent motorbike from Miss Noy (who definitely had a crush on Rene!). Head south on Route 13. Very scary at first (Rene says, hehe). Even scarier when Veronik drives. I can't really start straight.
11:30 - Arrive at Tat Lo waterfalls. Book into guesthouse. Don't remember the name. Just by the bridge. Lovely deck overlooking the waterfalls and the river. Eat lunch. Chill out for a bit.
16:00 - Head out for a ride. Buy a coconut. Ride 40k to Salavan. Go to market. Get an amazing welcome. Lots of stuff there: ant eggs and grilled cicadas (insects). Buy cherry tomatoes, one cucumber, chilies, lettuce, garlic, mint.
19:00 - Have lovely dinner on our deck. Delicious picnic. No MSG in our food, that's great. Spent way too much time figuring out how to open a coconut with a leatherman.
Journal entry - Day 2 - March 28, 2011
6:00 - Hit the road early. Get coffee at market. Coffee is strong and thick like Turkish coffee. Market is quite small and basic. Turn right at Ban Beng. Ride 50k to Tha Theang.
9:00 - Turn left to Sekong. At this point, we're starved for breakfast. Get to Sekong, head to the market, but cannot find nice fruits. So we go to VilayVanh restaurant, without English menus, or menus at all. Somehow end up eating a Lao noodle soup which is quite tasty and a giant Tom Yum like fish soup. Sticky rice too. Much discussion about sticky rice excess in our diet.
12:00 - Head out of Sekong. Follow the road along the river Se Don. Take a side dirt road to find some fine surongs. No luck, but pretty. Drive 50k to a crossroad with military posts and guys looking at us like we're completely fucked if we turn right. We turn right (!) The road goes through gorgeous jungle. 71km of dusty red dirt and only 1L of water (!) Many nice waterfalls along the way. Road goes up the actual Bolaven Plateau.
15:00 - Some time later, turn right and arrive in some small villages. We're not lost finally. Road turns shit some kilometres later. Construction over more than 20km. Almost wiped out a few times in deep dust. Survived (due to driver's superior skills..according to Rene).
16:30 - At this point, it's getting late, we've been riding since 7:30 that morning. We're starved, very dirty, tired, and bottoms are sore from bumpy roads. Motorbikes designed for small buts.
17:30 - Finally arrive in Paksong. Check in Savanna Guesthouse behind market. Quite windy and cold and can't find a warm restaurant. End up eating chicken laap and sticky rice, and drinking Beer Lao in bed. Crash into a deep sleep two hours later.
Journal Entry - Day 3 - March 29th, 2011
04:30 - Get woken up by loud reverb speaker/karaoke machine.
07:00 - Go for coffee. Have a great time at the local market. Buy sticky rice cooking baskets. Also buy eggs...but they're a little undercooked and I can't convince myself to eat the embryo in it.
08:30 - Take off towards a small dirt road to Phuoi Village to find a coffee coop. Never found it. But again, amazing scenery. Go back to main road and drive to Tat Fan waterfalls and resort.
13:00 - Haul it back to Pakse. Decide to go hunt for some silk in Ban Saphai. See silk weaving but never found where to buy it. Come back to Pakse. Get Vietnam visas. Go to the huge market. That was very cool! Ended up in a typical Veronik's produce market shopping spree, aka bought way too much unknown fruits and veggies.
18:00 - At our Pakse guesthouse, have a feast with our market purchases: herb sausages (kind of like tom yum flavored fatty pork plum succulent sausages, hehe), lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, 2 pounds of mint (Rene couldn't stop the lady from putting more in his bag!), pickled veggies, cilantro, basil, green onions, mystery dried meet and dips, a huge pomelo, dragonfruit, ramboutans, and more.
End of journal notes.
Sending my love,
Veronik
No comments:
Post a Comment