Laos part Deux

Pakse seemed to be a bit of a ghost town the infrastructure was set up for huge amounts of tourists yet none were about. Just me and the rest of the crew minus a couple we are now only 6 strong. Arabica coffee is huge in this town and the surrounding villages and i was amazed at the many brand new Lexus SUV's running around town. In fact i distinctly remember thinking holy crap i cannot even here that car although it is in motion. hehehe. Thailand and Laos must truly be home to some of the loudest cars on the planet. It was like finding watching a thunderstorm with no sound.

Not much to do in the town except hop in for an hour tuk tuk ride out into the mountains and check out a couple waterfalls. All the way out to the destination fields of green coffee bean plants greeted me and my compadres. In several place large concrete expanses were strewn with coffee beans drying in the hot sun. I had such a surreal feeling on the entire ride out unsure of what to expect all the while being inundated by the fragrance of flowers, cute children, and the mountain like roar that was in fact our engine. It must have been the low season and no one i mean no one was at this first sight of beauty. The falls were maybe 25 ft wide and loomed commandingly into the air. Water was spilling over the falls at such a speed and high volume that 5 meters from the base you felt like you were in a stationary training pool. Mist was everywhere and the water seemed pure. After a quick dip and some snaps we were off to the tallest waterfall in all of Laos. Now this puppy was massive. 100 meters or something crazy like that. I could not get that close just a ridge view from the top of the other side of a massive gorge. Behind the falls the land continued almost perfectly flat as far as the eye could detect. Almost like a freshly mowed lawn the trees only grew to a seemingly predetermined height and then stopped creating a very awesome visual effect.

Nocturnal Octagon or the group from the slow boat re-united in 4,000 islands. Other than being crazily hot it was quite a network of these tiny little land masses strewn about different fingers of a river. No electricity except from 6 to 11 or so at night was neat. Only the river supplied relief from the heat. An early exit took the crew toward Siem Reap while Seth and I stayed behind got bikes and explored the island. Plus another attached by a bride. At the end of our heat filled journey was a longtail boat out to some rock in the middle of a joining body of water created by all the different rivers. You could say lake, but very small scale. Unfortunately it was big enough that our only sighting of freshwater PINK dolphins was done at a distance.