We had a leisurely day strolling around the small town and happened to stumble across a temple that was home to lots and lots of kittens. Melissa of course was in cat heaven and spent lots of time making friends with all of the cats. One of the kittens was a bit skinny and had weepy eyes and a German tourist told us that he thought it should be put out of its misery, much to the disgust of Melissa who gave him a stern scowl. We finally said goodbye to the cats and went to find some dinner.
The choices were limited in Pakse, the menus were very similar in the few restaurants on the main road so we went for a little wonder up and down the side roads to see if we could find something a little bit more exciting. We found the food market which would usually excite us but in this case, it was not busy at all and the food looked like it had been sitting out for a while. Running out of options, we decided to eat at a decent looking restaurant we had passed earlier and ordered some fresh spring rolls, some fried chicken breasts and a mango salad. The four large spring rolls looked very appetising and came with the obligatory fish dipping sauce. The three chicken breasts on a bed of salad looked golden and delicious. The crispy, shredded mango salad, spicy, sweet and sour was a perfect accompaniment to the plain tasting chicken and spring rolls. Our giant plates of food had unfortunately attracted the attention of the local tramp. He looked a bit worse for wear and under the influence of alcohol but we did have way too much food so I decided to be the good samaritan and I gave him one of the fresh spring rolls. At first he refused and pointed to the chicken instead... cheeky git!! Melissa was losing her patience and obviously wanted rid of the drunk, dirty tramp that was hovering over our food. He finally took the spring roll but instead of going away, he brazenly dipped it in our dipping sauce and made a mess all over the table. He did this not once but twice, sauce dripping off his unshaven chin!! Even the tramps follow the strict local laws of how to eat your food!! I had to firmly tell him to go away before he ate all of our food and got a telling off from Melissa for attracting crazy people, something I seem to be good at. After our eventful evening, we went back to our hotel to get a good nights sleep because all the lights in this uneventful town seemed to switch off at 9pm.
We woke early the next morning to catch transport to the Bolaven Plateau, a wonderful hilly area where all of the amazing coffee grows. We caught a bus to Tad-Lo, a beautiful, rustic, waterfront village with lots of bamboo huts. Cows and pigs were roaming around freely and children were playing in the river. An old lady found us and beckoned us to her basic huts right by the river. We paid the equivalent of £2 for the hut and found it to be one of the most romantic spots we had stayed in, sipping a beer Lao on the balcony of our bamboo hut overlooking the Mekong river on a gloriously sunny day without a care in the world. The food was good and the steamed fish in banana leaf that we had to order at lunch time to be ready for the evening was definitely an unusual dish. It arrived wrapped in the banana leaf but instead of being a whole fish it was minced and mashed with egg and noodles in a sort of block. Not what I expected but very tasty nevertheless. We also had a really good curried vegetable soup, loads of roughly chopped veggies in a light curry broth, it reminded me of old fashioned curry powder taste. We ended our wonderful day with another Beer Lao and called it a night.
Our next stop was Paksong, a small town in the Bolaven Plateau and a good base to explore the coffee plantations and waterfalls in the area. It was a real mission to get there as the roads were still in the process of being built and we ended up flagging down anything going up the road in the hope of getting to where we wanted to go. After a number of rickshaws, tuk-tuks and a nice bus, we finally ended up in Paksong, a rather quiet looking one street town with not an awful lot going on. A short distance away however was the most amazing waterfall we have ever seen and we were lucky enough to have a really sunny day and be able to swim in the pool below. After our nice swim we explored the coffee plantations and bought some freshly ground Laos coffee to send back to our family in England, we also had a sample ourselves, strong stuff!! Unfortunately, my tranquillity was about to be rudely interrupted by an extremely violent stomach upset. Who knows the culprit (probably that strange block of fish!!) but I was off my food for a number of days after this so unfortunately nothing exciting to write about food-wise :-(
We arrived back in Pakse after our lovely excursion into the hills and caught another bus further south to a small town called Champasak. We were waiting an age for the bus to leave as the driver wanted more passengers and we had to amuse ourselves in the 40 degree heat by drinking lots of 7-Up and watching rogue cows eat scraps from wicker basket bins. The buses were more like pick up trucks with benches in the back and were extremely hot when not moving. Eventually we got another few passengers and we set off. We had to board a makeshift car ferry as we reached the Mekong river and noticed a woman on a floating platform selling some really nice looking fresh spring rolls. My tummy felt right enough to try a little bit and they were fantastic, the rice paper was very fresh and soft and the filling crunchy and tasty. We watched a team of ladies surrounded by baskets of fresh ingredients making them from scratch and passing the finished rolls to a young girl who would hand them to the hungry customers. We munched them up, handed back the plate to the young girl and waved goodbye as our car ferry crossed the river.
After a night in Champasak exploring a temple at night time and a close encounter with a snake, we caught a bus and long boat to our next destination, the 4000 islands. This was to be without the doubt the most relaxed, laid back place we had visited and we spent a week relaxing in a bamboo hut by the river, swaying in our hammocks and being very lazy!! We tried an interesting lentil dish, similar in texture to an Indian dal but flavoured with lemongrass and lime leaves, a great variation in flavour. Along with this we ordered a pumpkin sandwich that arrived as toasted pieces of bread with mashed up pumpkin patties, cucumber and tomato on top, again very tasty. We weren't sure if the pumpkin was a local delicacy or just something to appease the palate of the large number of backpackers in the area but it was a tasty change from noodle soup nevertheless. We found another tasty snack whilst wondering the small dusty paths of the main path running through the island (there are no roads!!) in the form of samosas. Again, not quite sure if they are Laos delicacies but the little girl selling them was so cute and they were so cheap and delicious that we made many return visits.
Alas, it was time to say goodbye to Laos. We had purposefully stayed over the allotted 30 days on our tourist visa thinking that it was only a $2 a day fine but then realised it was $10 a day so thought we better get a move on to Cambodia. The immigration officer in typical laid back Laos fashion never noticed that we had overstayed our visa by two days, or maybe he just didn't care.
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