Pakse to Tad Lo

After taking it easy yesterday, there was a bit more driving to be done today.

The plan was to do the Bolaven Plateau loop and see how far we would make it in the loop. The first stop after leaving Pakse was the Tad Fane waterfall. It's a pretty cool waterfall and definitely worth a stop.

After tad Fane, it's just a short drive to the Tad Gneaung waterfall, where you can also get nice food and enjoy a chat with the very nice owner.

Once you are past these waterfalls, the next stop is Paksong where you should stop at Jhai Coffee for a really nice cup of local coffee and a chat with the owner who knows a lot about the local coffee and can give you a tour.

We arrived right when he was being interviewed by a crew for a documentary about Laos and the local coffee.

After enjoying the coffee, a quick bite and sheltering from a small shower it was time to head onwards.

The next part is on a road that you don't have on Google maps (even 3 years later after they finished the road) so just use Maps.Me or follow the signs towards Attapeu and Sekong.

The road will lead you through the mountains down from the plateau past some really amazing views. Since they completed the road it's a lot easier to drive than it was 3 years ago but you should still watch out not to end like the car in the photo above.

Once you are on road 11, it's an easy ride to Attapeu or Sekong, since we wanted to do the loop, we were heading towards Sekong and from there to Thateng.

After a quick stop for some Huda beer (yes, I know) we started to head on to make it to Tad Lo before it got too late.

Tad Lo is still a very sleepy town hidden away, the tad Lo waterfall is it's main attraction but it's more the peace and quiet that gets people here filling up the many guesthouses.
Staying in Tad Lo, you'll definitely go to bed early as even 8pm feels like midnight with most places closed and all the locals being in their homes.

Day 192 - Day 3 of the Bolaven Plateau Loop

Woke up early for breakfast and for a walk around Tat Lo, went to the waterfall again and took some photos around the village.

Tat Lo is a sleepy village with half a local crowd and the other half tourists, it kind of works better than in some other places I have seen here in Laos.

After a while of walking around and taking in the village life I decided to head to Salavan and check out the town. At 30 km it was not too far for a quick drive.

There was not that much to do in Salavan so I figured  will not only do the big loop but also the small loop so headed back to Paksong for lunch and coffee.

After having some Banh My for lunch and a coffee, I headed back to Tat Lo to pick up my stuff and head to Pakse.

I took some more photos around the waterfalls in Tat Lo and by the time I headed to Pakse it was almost getting dark.

Tomorrow, I will head to Don Khong, one of the 4000 Islands and then see what comes next.

Day 191 - Day 2 of the Bolaven Plateau Loop

I woke up quite early to get on with the longest stretch of the big loop, the way from Pakong to Attapeu. Reading about it people say it's quite a 'difficult and dangerous' road and quite a challenge.

Well, after having a longer breakfast it was already after 10:00 before I actually left Paksong.

With that in mind I set off and found that the first stretch was a well paved new road so I made the most out of it and drove 80 km/h to make up time now before the bad part would start.

Well, I kept going on and the road indeed became a bit worse with some gravel, mud parts and stretches under construction. I ca imagine during the rain t could be more difficult to drive but  could easily make in through by driving 30-40 km/h over most parts of it. There were big trucks coming through so the road can never be that bad if a massive truck can make it.

I kept driving and was quite surprised when I found myself at the crossroads towards Attapeu or Sekong before noon. Since the guides all mention heading to Attapeu if you have the time and I clearly had enough time left, I turned right and headed towards Attapeu on another nicely paved new road with little traffic.

To my surprise I made it to Attapeu in just over 1h so decided to get a coffee and a small lunch, I stopped off at a Vietnamese guest house and restaurant. There, I came upon a group of Vietnamese who promptly invited me to join them for lunch and some beers. Afterwards they insisted of even paying for my coffee.
This is why I miss Vietnam already, the people there are fantastic and it's great to socialize even if you don't always fully understand each other.

Since there was not much else to see or do in Attapeu and I had plenty of daylight left, I backtracked and headed for Sekong. Thanks to the great roads I made it to Sekong in great time and with still over 1h of daylight left, I continued onwards for Tat Lo.

Everyone I met and the guides were raving about Tat Lo so I was curious to check it out. Well, it turned out that it as a pretty laid back place next to a few waterfalls but a bit touristy.
After doing some sightseeing, on my bike, I found a guesthouse and went for dinner while still trying to decide if I should stay here a day or two or head on to Pakse tomorrow.

While parking my bike, I also realized that I've done 300km during the day without even noticing or feeling tired. Guess on good and mostly empty roads it's easy to drive and lose track of the distances or maybe I have been on a motorbike too long now to even notice how far I go.