Feb 25 – Village and more Waterfalls

Today we are headed into the highlands and the Boleven Plateau in southern Laos.  

The drive took us back through Pakse where we had views of a massive building that looked like one of the big palaces in France, domes and mansard roofs and the works.  It is the mansion of the owners of the Dao coffee operation in Laos, one of the largest coffee operations in the country.

First stop was a roadside shop where they sold lots of metal garden equipment.  The main draw here was the young man who worked as a blacksmith making the metal parts. His partner who made the wooden handles was also there.

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Video of Blacksmith
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He had a fairly large shop displaying quite a variety of cutting and gardening tools that he had made.

In walking around the grounds there we saw a durian tree with some small fruits on it. 

Along the way we stopped at a market where we saw a lot of live fish hanging in plastic bags.  I think some might have been for pets as they looked like koi or goldfish… 

but others looked big enough to be dinner.

There were large concrete tanks that were being aerated as they housed a lot of fish. 

Adjacent to the fish market was a long vegetable market with hanging watermelon slices, 

all the usual colorful produce, foods and drinks, 

meat counters (many with overhead fans to combat the flies), 

and tubs of live fish.

It was a short from there to the Lak 40 Coffee and Tea shop...

where we took a walk through the grounds to see some coffee plants and beans.

and drying racks. 

Our guide talked about the growing, harvesting and processing of coffee beans.  

We don’t drink coffee and have seen this type of operation before so it wasn’t particularly interesting.  But it was a lovely walk. 

At the drying tent we saw a man bringing large baskets of beans to the drying tables where he raked them piles out into thin layers for they could dry.

Of course, there was a coffee/tea shop for drinks and purchase.  Patty got a coffee to go and some coffee beans and tea leaves.  Tara bought some tea.

We had several other stops today…a small, roadside market where the local ladies were selling goods and smoking bamboo pipes.

And an Animist Village.  There were a few people around and Tara handed out toiletries and her left-over school supplies.

This building was the council house for the village, where the elders came to meet and work on issues.  

There was rice drying in the main square.

And some livestock were hanging out under a house, probably cooler in the shade. 

This gentleman had worked with the American forces during the Vietnam war. 

There are termite problems in the tropics so many of the wooden houses use rocks as a foundation. 

This one took the minimalist approach to the number or rocks needed.  I don't think they are in an earthquake zone so that is good. 

The main attraction today is waterfalls.  Our first waterfall was the Tadfane Waterfall.  We stopped and walked through a resort to an overlook where we saw two ribbon falls dropping into the valley below.  Views were great.   There were zip-lines lining up for a ride across the ravine but we didn’t stay long enough to watch them.

Found a few very large spiders on the walk to the falls.

We then hit the large local market in a nearby large village/town.  It was covered and huge. 

There were stalls selling all types of fresh,

Snails

Dragon Fruit

dried,

Dried Fish

and cook foods.  

The tubes of fish sauce did NOT look very appetizing.  

There was also a large food court. But none of us was brave enough to suggest eating lunch here.

The market spilled over into the surrounding parking lots and streets...where we found a few more interesting vendors. 

After inspecting the market we headed out for lunch at another coffee plantation.  We didn’t do any touring there, just lunch.

Then it was off to see the second waterfall of the day…Tadfane.  This one was particularly lovely.  We really should have brought our swimsuits as it had easy walk-in/walk-out pools.  A lot of people was swimming and jumping off rocks and generally have a great time. 

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Video of woman doing exercise
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And the falls were lovely and definitely worth the drive. 

Along the way we saw many teepee-stacks of sticks.  The guide said these were casava starts and would be planted during the upcoming planting season.  Casava is a big cash crop here for export.  It is used to make flour, chips and tapioca.  

We had a three-hour drive back to the hotel.  Along the way we had a pretty decent sunset.

Dinner was in the hotel, open to the outside.  The walls of the restaurant were covered with lizards (who eat bugs so that helps).  There were a couple of really big ones. 

And we also found one in our hotel room.  Fortunately he didn't bother us.