After Kong Lor, we headed to Laos' 2nd Biggest City, Savannakhet. I wish I had good things to tell you about this city. In my opinion, it was pretty shady. Nothing worth stopping for tourist-wise, other than a night of sleep. Luckily, a few of us heard about a little Italian restaurant in this town. We were SO happy to find it and that it was open! Pasta with tomato sauce never tasted so good after 10 days of eating nonstop fried noodles! If life ever finds you in the shady town of Savannakhet, Laos, make SURE to have a meal at Lin's Cafe!!
Speaking of cuisine, our next stop was a place called "Chicken Village"--- pretty much known for its roast chicken and various other items on a stick. This village was our lunch stop--- stand upon stand of meat on a stick.
Pretty much a whole flattened chicken on a big skewer!
Ribbit Ribbit!
Although the chicken looked deivine (the frogs just looked gross), unfortunately my tummy wasn't feeling 100% at that moment. I passed on the jumbo skewers and thought maybe this one below would be ok.
Looked like just pieces of chicken to me. Took a bit if the bottom--- so chewy! Tasted the top part--- spongy! Overall textures were disgusting and not at all like chicken. I purchased two and had no desire to eat the other, so I gave it to our Laotian tourguide. He told me yes it was chicken---organs! Intestine, liver, and lung. GROSS GROSS GROSS!
Our next stop was our overnight stop in Tad Lo. Had a visit with the local elephants just before bathtime....
Then a short walk to see the Tad Lo Waterfalls.
They were gushing! It *was* the rainy season.
This track had some wonderful bridge architecture as well!
I'm pretty sure if you look up 'rickety' in the dictionary, this is what you'd see!
Tad Lo was an interesting small town. There were more animals out in public than people.
Hello pig!
Goats. Chilling on the porch.
Pigs. Pregnant pigs. Checking out the construction site.
(lovely bamboo scaffolding, eh?)
Kittycats. On the motorbike.
Next morning we headed up in elevation to the Bolaven Plateau. We were VERY excited for the few degrees temperature change and our activity for the day--- a tour of a coffee plantation!!
So back in the day, a Dutch backpacker (in his 20s I think), was travelling through Laos, decided to settle here and start a coffee plantation! Now he's known here as Mister Coffee!
He taught us about arabica, robusta, the importance of shade trees, and just how fast/high coffee plants grow. Here are some of the fresh beans still on the plants.
It rained for our tour, and the ground was full of puddles and mud. One tourmate spotted one of these on her foot.
Yep, a Leech! They were all over, taking a bath in the puddles! Kind of cool.
Next Mister Coffee showed us the roasting process, small scale.
Roasting in a very very hot pan....
See the colors of the beans changing?
PS- it smelled INCREDIBLE. :)
Beans into a woven basket, toss them to cool.
Ta- dah! Roasted coffee!
Next, we all got a turn to hand-grind the freshly roasted beans.
And best of all was the last part--- DRINKING the freshly roasted, freshly ground coffee! It was fantastic!
Our lunch stop was in Tad Lo, near this massive waterfall, which was going absolutely bonkers after the rain all day!
Most people just took a photo from the top viewing deck. But two of my British tourmates and I strapped on our raincoats and took the steps to the bottom!
The spray from the fall was madness! We couldn't even lift our heads!
Wild wet women :)
Spent the night in a city called Pakse. Our tourmate Jess is a Les Mills instructor and after all our noodle-y meals and sitting on a bus we were again ready for a workout! Using someone's ipod and speakers, she led us in an exercise class in the hallway of our (very run-down) motel! It was stinkin hot- no a/c-- just fans, but so many laughs (and loads of SWEAT). The hotel staff didn't mind-- just gave us funny looks. Jess is now an internationally acclaimed exercise instructor :)
Pakse had some nice dining and drinking accomodations--- including this amazing rooftop bar at the Pakse Hotel. What a nice view!
One more post to come of my final adventures in Southern Laos!
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