Laos Back Entries

10 November 07
Tad Fane Waterfall Resort

The Iron-butt Survivor challenge, Laos edition.

Today was our motorcycle tour from the Tadfane resort out. Little did we know that it would turn into an "Iron-butt" challenge. We left at 10am, and thought it would just be a 3 or so hour tour around the neighborhood. Three and one half hours into the ride down a road off the plateau with no sign of habitation for at least an hour, our bike guide and local guide finally decided that we'd gone far enough into the wilderness without finding the waterfall they were looking for, and turned us around to head back to the resort. On the way back, they found the fall they were looking for, and we got a few photos of it. Between us, we're convinced that neither of our guides knew where they were going, and just figured they'd take the gringos out on the scooters for a few hours till they fell over. Our bikes were little 110cc scooters with the funky clutch-less rocker gears, where you click the front lever to upshift, and click on the rear lever to downshift.

Anyone that has been with Chaz knows that he gets a bit cranky if not fed on a regular basis, so the ride back up the plateau was a bit trying, as I know he was hungry and sore from being bounced around the dusty road for 4 hours without food. Combined with the fact that I think most of the roads which were bombed out in the second indochina war still haven't been repaired, it was a really rough trip for us. Chaz hit a pothole at one point on the way back from the end of the trail, and the taillight assembly which was taped to the bike popped back off of it. Adding insult to injury, today was a bit of a rainy day here in the south. Heavy clouds hung over the plateau, and we got sprinkled on for most of the return trip, and a real rain fell as we neared the hotel. When we arrived, Chaz was chilled to the bone, we were covered from head to toe with red dust from the trail, and we've got aches and pains where we least expected them. We have a new respect for the Laotians that negotiate these streets everyday, often with their scooters laden with 50 lb. bags of rice, or 4 kids riding along on the tiny seat.

This hotel is a bit more of what we bargained for, with glass in the windows, a screen, and a respectable distance between us and the waterfall, which should make for a much quieter and pleasant night. The water heater in the shower worked much better than the outdoor version at Pha Soaum, but I'm afraid the beds are just as hard. We met a dutch couple at dinner tonight that agreed; asian beds are far too hard for their own good. Speaking of dinner, we splurged tonight and bought a $22 bottle of Cabernet to go with our rice and noodles. We'll go cheap tomorrow to compensate. Tomorrow is a rest-day; no activities are planned, other than hanging around the resort. A nice change I think.

9 November 07
Pha Suam "Waterfall Resort"
Today was the meltdown. I knew it was coming. I've been there before a year ago in Nepal. When you're taken out of everything you know, there's a period of adjustment to the stress. When the stress doesn't abate after all your adjustments, and you still realize that you're the foreign body in the environment, here comes the meltdown. A classic BAD DAY, and today was entirely that for Charles. He's been away from everything he knows for over 10 days, with only a few hours of internet time in small intervals to pop email. It came at lunch over a beer after we've been driving around the Bolaven Plateau most of the morning, including a couple of village stops, and an unplanned stop when the minivan broke down along a dirt road between two towns. (The minivan is another story; crappy agencies)

The plane trip from Luang Prabang to Pakse was smooth and easy, despite having some French tourists behind me that were yelling across the aisle to one another. (I thought: "Voulez vous STFU, svp?") Our guide for this leg is not quite as conversant in English, so that's a challenge we're going to have to overcome for the next few days as well. Arriving at the Pha Suam "Resort", the scenery of the waterfalls has been beautiful, and the restaurant and lodge is well laid out. That being said, in terms of the accomodation, there's a wi-i-i-i-i-de gap of expectations between what we as Americans understand behind the word "Resort", and the open-air bungelow next to the falls that we have. A campground cabin is what we have. Had we known that ahead of time, we could have dialed down what we expected, but we didn't, and we hadn't. It's a nice cabin for what it is: bamboo floors, a little outdoor bathroom including a western toilet and a tiny water heater for the shower, no windows, and no real lighting. Not that no lighting is a problem, as the light would just attract the monster bugs like the beetle that I found on my mosquito netting this morning. Yick. I know people spend 100s of dollars to buy bedside clocks that sound like a waterfall, but a real one less than 200 yards away is not all that it is cracked up to be; it simply does not stop. Ever. Wake up to pee? Its still noisy. We've got a total of 4 nights at 'waterfall resorts' to put up with; as I write its the evening of our 2nd night. I think between ambien and Tylenol PM, we'll be able to get through it.