Country Driving in Northern Thailand

From Laos we headed to North Thailand for a week of motor biking. We flew into Chiang Mai and caught the "VIP Green Bus" for a comfy three hour night drive to Chiang Rai. We arrived to heavy rain and found a guesthouse / simple motel for $10/night. Soaked to the bone, we changed, found a yummy Chinese restaurant down the street and collapsed to sleep.

Bolaven Plateau and Luang Prabang

Our next adventure took us to the Laos countryside, zipping around on a moped in search of waterfalls on the Bolaven Plateau and wandering the iconic city of Luang Prabang, a buddhist community nestled in Northern Laos.

The Bolaven Plateau is a gorgeous tropical zone with waterfalls and coffee plantations perched in the clouds. On our motorbike, we passed village after village, kids waving and chasing after us. Brooms, baskets, axes, machetes, matts, etc. lined the streets for sale beside thatched two room houses. The area felt like one big jungle, with cloudy mist and drizzle contributing to the feeling. A half-day round trip from Pakse and just off the main road were Tad Champee, Tad Yuang / Gniang, and Tad E Tu waterfalls, with few people and lots of nature. At Tad Yuang we followed a steep path on a rickety platform to return soaked to the bone, happy as could be after seeing such an awesome sight, full after the long wet season. Regardless of size, setting or intensity there is always something primal about waterfalls. Perhaps it's the journey and sense of destination.

Welcome to Laos

From Siem Reap we headed to Pakse, Laos. We flew the national airline, Laos Airlines. Once known for its horrible accident record, it was one of our better flights with their new planes, decent food and good service. They even had an entertaining (and informative) country guide explaining some of the does and don'ts. It would be cool to see other countries do something similar!

On arrival we had planned to stay at a home stay, but we hadn't contacted them in advance and the house was closed. We ended up at the main hotel in town, the Pakse Hotel for $30 per night (mighty expensive for this part of the world and beyond our local budget, but it was nice to have a comfy bed, free WiFi and AC). Our favourite restaurant in town was across the street, the Xuan Mai. Fresh salads and fruit milk shakes rounded out our afternoon. At this point we had (pretty much) given up caring about food safety, but no worries here in Laos because we consistently found that food is prepared fresh! Ultimately Laos food would turn out to be one of our favourite cuisines of the trip. Yummy!